The Land Before Time - Novellization
by Ducky the most evil Swimmer
Summary: Novellization of the first Land Before Time. Taking on the movie we all love, adding details and depth as well as showing the movie in the order of scenes that was originally intended (for those who don't know, The Land Before Time was significantly cut prior to its release)
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

Once upon this same earth, beneath this same sun. Long before you, before the ape and the elephant as well, the wulf, the bison, the whale… before the mammoth and the mastodon… in the time of the dinosaurs!

Now the dinosaurs were of two kinds. Some had flat teeth for eating the leaves of the trees and some had sharp teeth for eating meat… and they prayed upon the leafeaters.

Then it happened that the leaves began to die. The mighty beasts who appeared to rule the earth were ruled, in truth, by the leaves. Desperate for food, some of the dinosaur herds stuck out towards the west, searching for the Great Valley - a land still lush and green. It was a journey towards life.

It was a march of many dangers. Sharpteeth stalked the herds, waiting to cease any who strayed.

The herds stopped only to hatch their young.

* * *

Well, I guess these words are familiar to everyone? :D

Yes, here's the long-awaited novellisation of the original Land Before Time movie which I announced a long time ago in my other story, **S** horty's **D** ark **P** ast.

What can you expect? Well, I do plan to write this, taking into account the cut scenes which didn't make it into the movie. I, personally, find it a real shame that these scenes were cut and I can't help but notice them missing every time I watch this wonderful movie. :( I plan on adding/changing some scenes a little as well. Most of this will be author's choice but I will not alter the main storyline. Most will be there to add context to the scenes we already got and to develop the characters a little further and make some scenes more intense or realistic :)

Due to the fact that I kind of base one storyline of SDP on this novellisation, my main focus will probably be on this story for a while now so, unless writer's block kills me again, this should be updated rather regularly. I've got a lot of the scenes in the middle written already back when they were still supposed to be part of the SDP fanfiction.

Expect the first chapter tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm still debating whether or not to include Ducky's, Cera's (and maybe Petrie's?) birth scenes. Would you like to see them? Notice though, that I won't go into extreme details as I have done with Littlefoot's birth scene which will be the first chapter :)


	2. Chapter 1 - Littlefoot is hatched

**Chapter 1 - Littlefoot is hatched**

The large, female Longneck carefully nudged the egg that lay beside her in the nest. There were several more egg shells in that nest but they did not belong to any hatchling of hers. The eggs had all been failures - empty and lifeless. Only one egg was very well filled with life - her only hope for the future.

The Longneck who had a blue-ish colour looked over to a couple of elderly Longnecks with a grey skin colour - the male's skin being slightly darker in colouration. They were wading through a nearby swamp on the lookout for anything edible for the mother-to-be who was the child of theirs. They would be grandparents of a wonderful little hatchling soon, however he would have to grow up in a hostile world. Sharpteeth were terrorising those who were able to survive the terrible drought that turned many once lush and green places into hostile deserts. It had been many years ago since they could live without having to worry about finding food. Life was a constant battle for survival, food was scarce, water even more so and protection from Sharpteeth was practically non-existent. They constantly had to be on alert - even at night.

Their only hope was the Great Valley - a mysterious place that was rumoured to exist in faraway lands towards the west. Whether the rumours were true, nobody knew. One brave Longneck - the father of the hatchling who was soon expected to hatch, had set off towards the west as soon as it became apparent that they would be having a little child to parent, trying to find out where this mysterious place was or if it even existed at all. Going on such a perilous journey with a little baby would have been too risky without knowing where to go. They had been wandering quite a lot in the past, trying to find the last remaining food and water sources that their environment still offered them but, no matter where they went, it was always the same story. The land was changing for the worse - even the once so lush land that had been their home for so long was now little more than a dead area, most rivers and lakes dried up, most forests burned or dead.

They knew how hard life had been to them these past few years and there was no indication whatsoever that water and food would return anytime soon. It was to be assumed that things got even worse so their only hope was that the rumours about this promised land were indeed true. Otherwise, their child would not have a very pleasant childhood, that much they knew. It was even highly questionable how much longer they would be able to survive under these worsening conditions at all, not to mention staying strong enough to protect the little one from the countless dangers of their world. Taking the perilous journey upon themselves was the only option they had if they wanted to give their unhatched child a small chance to reach adulthood so he could continue their bloodline and start a new generation. Either they would reach the Great Valley or die trying together.

With interest, the mother studied the afternoon sky which revealed a dark wall of clouds quickly rushing by from the south.

"Looks like a storm is coming," the elderly male mentioned as he brought some food to his daughter who was guarding the nest, having seen the approaching storm as well.

"Yes, maybe we'll finally get some Sky Water so the plants can grow again," the mother-to-be replied, hope rising up in her chest. Water meant life and they were about to get lucky.

"Keep in mind that a storm can also cause harm though," the elderly female reminded her family, having experienced many storms both severe and harmless in her long life. One always had to be prepared for the worst to come in these days where every day of survival was a true gift.

"Yes, but I think this is a good sign," the elderly male reasoned. "Our grandson is about to hatch. I think it's a good sign that Sky Water is coming now in particular."

"Yes, I agree," his mate added. "And if it is not, we will do everything in our might to protect our grandchild from the harsh power of nature."

They went back to the swamps again, looking for more food while the sky continued to darken. It wasn't long until strong winds reached the group of Longnecks, gushing lots of rain into their faces. Lightning flashes were dancing across the sky so quick that it was hard to tell them apart. It was a pretty intense storm though not much of a danger to the Longnecks.

The mother shielded her egg from the worst, waiting for the storm to pass. After thirty minutes, the storm finally reduced to rain of medium intensity, the lightning flashes dancing further away from then and the thunder gently rolling across the land as opposed to the loud gun-shot like thunderclaps the storm had spawned constantly. Finally, the young female could relax again. The storm was moving on, leaving her egg in one piece much to her relief. It was safe now… or was it?

She didn't see the Eggstealer, quietly moving into a nearby bush, his eyes fixated on her egg. The Longneck hadn't noticed him yet so he jumped out of his hideout, silently edging closer until he stood on top of a skeleton of a Swimmer, that worked as a sort of improvised wall, protecting the nest, right in front of the egg, saliva gathering in his mouth as he put his eye on this particularly good-looking egg. It was literally about to hatch - he liked his favourite meal well-done. Quick as a lightning bolt, he grabbed the egg with his long fingers.

That was when the Longneck realised that somebody was trying to steal her baby. " _Sharptooth dung!"_ Furiously, she swung her strong, muscular head like a mace, knocking the creature far from her with a single, powerful, bone-crushing move. It instantly dropped the egg which fell to the ground right at the edge of their nest. A few cracks had appeared in its shell but it had remained intact. Unfortunately, though, the egg began to tumble into the wrong direction, falling down the bony remains of the Swimmer, down the wooden remains of what once was a green bush, more cracks appearing in the eggshell during its descent yet the egg did not break.

With a splash, it soon fell into a nearby stream that supplied the swamps around the nest with little water though it had swollen significantly after the rainstorm, the egg dancing on the water surface after it had resurfaced from the initial dive. Though, soon, a small waterfall ended the egg's little watery adventure as soon as it had begun. It fell a little off from the stream, now, again, rolling down through even more scrub, constantly spinning as it did so, until it, finally, came to a standstill in a little trough that seemed like it could have been a nest of another dinosaur in the past.

While the two elderly Longnecks instantly hurried to go after the egg, the mother swung her mighty tail to prevent the Eggstealer from getting up and going after the egg, crushing the creature's ribcage as her massive tail made contact with the thin figure, flinging it several feet through the air before crashing into a nearby rock where it remained motionless. This had been its last hunt. " _I was a fool!"_ Without paying the dying Eggstealer any further attention, she rushed after her egg as well, full of rage and worries eating her up. Did the egg make it?

As the two elder Longnecks discovered their egg somewhat below their nest, their first reaction was relief. "The egg is safe and it did not get crushed, what a blessing!" the male shouted once the egg came into his field of view. Their daughter soon caught up to them after she had decapitated the aggressor, advancing to their egg together since they couldn't let the egg remain unprotected another time,. since, naturally, a lonely egg drew quite some attention among dinosaurs and critters alike. That was even more so when a lonely egg had cracks all over its skin, being about to hatch. A small lizard inspected the egg curiously. Where had it come from so suddenly? It seemed to have fallen from the very sky without warning after all. The thundering footsteps that were quickly approaching as well as signs of movement in the egg soon startled the little creature though, crawling back into its hideout from where it continued to watch the scene with curious eyes. Its curiosity was puny though in comparison to the tingly excitement that the three adult Longnecks were now feeling as, upon their arrival at the scene, it became clear that the egg had survived the wild journey with little damage, furthermore being about to hatch. They arrived just in time to witness how their child began stirring within the egg, probably shaken awake from all the tumbling and spinning.

The young female's mind was beginning to calm again, though it was yet to be seen whether the hatchling had taken damage. When she noticed that the hatching was about to take place, excitement welled up in her like a fountain of water. With childlike curiosity, she watched as her baby struggled to break free. " _Oh, I can't wait!"_

Now, the cracked surface of the egg turned out to be a good thing in the end. All the unborn hatchling had to do was giving the shell a little kick to break the first small hole into its former home that had now become too tight and violent for its liking. It wanted to get out, though there still was a small complication that made hatching a little tricky despite the already weakened skin. Unlucky as it was, it had ended up lying on its head so its world lied upside down all of a sudden. The violent journey had completely confused the hatchlings sense of orientation on top of that to complicate things further. Nevertheless, the wish to struggle free somehow was prevailed in the little Longneck so, in a matter of a few moments, it, blindly, struck his tail, breaking through the small hole at the top of the egg and enlarging it further. A powerful kick of its hind limbs broke the egg apart at last though the little Longneck was still in an upside down position, balancing on its head.

Naturally, the little one didn't have a good balance yet, the wild tumble further magnifying that effect, so it, soon, tumbled over until its legs were finally touching the sandy ground for the first time though its head was still not quite facing in the right direction. The first image young Littlefoot saw when he opened his eyes for the first time, was a strange world where directions weren't as he was used to. Drowsily, he rolled over at last - finally, things seemed to be normal again, maybe aside from the fact that he no longer resided in his egg. His eyesight was still very poor, only allowing him to see rough, blurry shapes and washed out colours yet but, already, he was astonished by what his eyes were showing him. It was much more exciting than the permanent darkness he had gotten used to by now.

Besides, young Littlefoot also discovered another new ability of his body. He could smell things with his nose now though the few smells he was already able to pick up didn't have any meaning to the young Longneck yet. With delight, he also noticed, that he could hear much better outside of the limiting walls that had encased his existence so far. On top of that, it was so cool to be free at last! The tickly sensation that the sand he was currently sitting on gave him was pleasant above anything else, the cool breeze of the air around him, which was of much better quality than the little air he had while he was still within the borders of the egg too, was new to him as well; and it astounded him why it was moving like that in the first, and, above all, he could sense some unknown liquid touch his body on a few spots. What was it? And how did it work that liquid could fly? He couldn't fly, could he? There were so many questions forming in the little one's head at once that he couldn't keep track of them in the slightest, nor did he know how to communicate them, however, he knew one thing for sure: This world was in every aspect superior to his former life in disguise.

The mother of the child had a hard time holding back the tears of joy that were forming in her eyes. She had successfully hatched her first child; it was the most miraculous feeling that she had ever felt in her life. On first sight, she knew that she had a wonderful, healthy and curious boy in front of her eyes, coloured in a purple-ish hue, exploring his new world with the senses he had. Yet, her little Littlefoot was completely oblivious to his mother so she decided to make herself known to the clumsy child.

"Here I am," she spoke invitingly, lowering her head to the hatchling's eye-level while his grandma and grandpa remained in the background for now, observing the scene with just as much delight as their daughter. Wasn't it like yesterday, when she had hatched in front of their eyes?

Littlefoot quickly made notice of the warm voice that appeared to have come from above him. Even though he could not understand what was being said, he had heard this voice countless times before. It was the voice that had always been there for as long as he could remember so he instantly recognised it. What he didn't know, however, was what that curious voice was or what it meant? Surely, it would belong to somebody who was like him? How lovely it would be to have someone like him whom he could play with and explore the mysteries of this new world together…

Of all the senses that he now possessed, his sense of sight seemed to be the most useful and reliable so he used the information that his ears had received moments ago to aim his eyes at the source of the voice. Suddenly, two things happened at once. The Longneck didn't really know how his body reacted to movement yet hence he couldn't prevent himself from losing his footing, falling onto his back because of the shift in weight and its distribution. At the same time, his eyes spotted a huge, unknown shape that was rapidly closing in on him, instinct telling him that big, unknown things were bad so his initial reaction was fear. Scared of this voice and this shape, he crawled away as best as he could though he was far from figuring out how he had to move his extremities properly. What was about to happen now? Were there things in this world that didn't mean him any good? Was he about to be hurt by that mysterious thing? Did he make a mistake? Maybe he was supposed to stay in his shell? Though, he had broken the egg. Would he now receive the punishment for his mistakes? Timidly, Littlefoot cowered on the ground, awaiting whatever was about to happen with him.

The female knew that hatchlings were very cute but her boy undermined every existing definition of cute that she knew of. From the first second on, her Littlefoot was being the embodiment of adorable. Though, apparently, he was scared of her. She had heard that hatchlings were often born with poor eyesight which would give a reasonable explanation as for why her son didn't recognise his mother right away despite knowing her voice. Gently, yet determined, the mother licked the boy. At first he tried to evade her tongue but soon…

Littlefoot, promptly, tried to crawl away when he felt a strange, wet yet warm and somewhat soft something touch much of his exposed back. He didn't know whether it was good or bad yet so, until he did, he would assume the worst and try to get away from it. Once he had come into contact with the strange object a few times, he had to admit that he kind of liked the feeling that it gave him. It spent warmth and, moreover, it reminded him of the sound of the voice - causing the same feeling in him… a warmth that seemed to originate deep within him. Maybe his eyes had fooled him in the end?

This time, the hatchling allowed the strange object to touch him. Littlefoot immediately came to the conclusion that something so warm and wonderful simply couldn't mean him any harm so he gave up his cowered position, rising his short neck into the air to smile broadly for the first time in his life. He was truly happy when the object continued to touch him all over his small body but, mostly, around his head. He turned his head to the big unknown shape hovering above him to take a closer look. Littlefoot couldn't quite determine yet what it was but something told him that it belonged to him and he belonged to it.

As he was now to find out, it was also very strong - strong enough to push him from his feet yet it did so very gently, almost as if it was playing a game with him. Littlefoot got to his feet again and tried to take yet another picture of the object that was playing with him. His eyes finally focussed a little more, allowing him to see much much more details. For example, the thing that gave him the good feeling seemed to have the same things that he had. Eyes, a nose, ears, a mouth and something within that mouth which gave him the warm feeling. It was just like him, only gigantic. Gigantic but very kind and loving. Littlefoot immediately memorised how it looked and how it smelled like so he would never lose it again. Actually, he had this funny thing in his mouth too so he began to imitate the much bigger version of himself, sticking his tongue out to touch the much bigger dinosaur in front of him. Littlefoot was caught by surprise when he was suddenly touched directly but he knew that he had nothing to fear, loving this new kind of touch right away. Actually, he never wanted it to stop touching him and making him feel great so he held onto its snout, hugging his mother.

Littlefoot had already made his first friend in this strange world and he would soon find so many more. His mother was overwhelmed by the emotions. It was a moment she would never, ever forget. The love of a mother for her child was unconditional and stronger than anything in the world. She loved her little Littlefoot from head to toe, from nose to the tip of his little tail.

Now that the bonding had taken place, many of the smaller creatures that had gathered around the site by now were slowly daring to come forward to take a friendly, closer look at the sweet, little hatchling of the Longneck. The female knew that the creatures meant no harm to her little son though he did not seem to be aware of that yet. Slightly amused, she watched how he tried to escape from the ever growing crowd of onlookers - first crawling and, eventually, trying and failing to run on his scrawny legs.

When Littlefoot saw more strange moving things, he was afraid. Would they be just as nice as the big dinosaur he was clinging onto right now? The boy didn't feel good about the situation so he took flight. Eventually, he hid behind his mother's legs which seemed like the safest place to go at the time.

"Don't be afraid. Come out."

There, the voice. Littlefoot heard it again. Even though he still didn't know what any of those sounds actually meant to tell him, he understood the message just from the way the voice was talking to him. It sounded like everything was okay so he assumed that the creatures, maybe, would be nice too? The little one allowed them to get closer though, too soon, the sheer amount of them and the way how they kept advancing on him startled him quickly so he, again, took flight, finding refuge in the big dinosaur who lifted him up in the air much to his delight. This dinosaur who was like him was even strong enough to lift him from the ground which seemed to hold on to him for some reason that he couldn't quite explain yet. There were still so many questions he had but, for now, he was just happy to be with his mother. Nothing else mattered.

It was only now that Littlefoot made notice of the other two big dinosaurs. They looked like his mother a lot and they smelled very similar. Above all, they looked at him with the same, warm smile that made his heart melt from pure joy and merriness which gave him lots of energy. It was that energy that drove him to jump around on his mother's back for a while while the three big dinosaurs were constantly looking at him perform the wildest of stunts, laughing and smiling at him. His new life was so wonderful, Littlefoot regretted not leaving the egg even sooner.

It was soon, though, that Littlefoot felt an all too familiar feeling. Some things, apparently, still stayed the same after his escape from the egg, tiredness being one of them. Now, Littlefoot didn't mind sleeping. Sleeping was awesome, though, right now, he'd rather continue to learn more about his new friends and the world around him. Fighting the desire to rest seemed pointless so, with a cute yawn, he curled up on his mother's back, smiling all the way until he was fast asleep under the light chuckles of his mother and grandparents. His first day in freedom had been perfect and he was now looking forward to the next day!

"Dear, sweet Littlefoot…" his mother whispered, finally allowing the tears of joy to flow freely from her eyes. It'd take her well into the night until she'd finally take her eyes off her son, settling down for the night at last.

* * *

You don't know how much fun it was to write that :D It was a spontaneous idea to go that much into details about young Littlefoot's thoughts as he casts a first glance at this new and exciting world but I guess it was one of my better ideas :P

I hope you liked this introduction into the story, the next chapter will probably continue with the hatch scenes of Cera, Ducky and Petrie (yes, I think I have an idea there, yep, yep, yep) Hopefully, I will be able to finish this by the end of the week, the last two days weren't as productive in terms of writing as I anticipated to be :(

* * *

F-14 Ace chp 1

"Ooh this could be good."

I certainly hope it will be. If you think I butchered something, feel free to let me know :)


	3. Chapter 2 - The herds stopped only to

**Chapter 2: The herds stopped only to hatch their young:**

"You still think today's the day, honey?" The grey-coloured, sturdy male Threehorn spoke in his usual short and gruff way of talking. It was as hot as all the previous days, the Bright Circle's rays, that used to be associated with life and growth, burning down on him. Rather, they were now associated with death and the terrible drought that had been decimating the numbers of many herds, including the herd of threehorns that they were travelling with. Surely, the odds of survival were against them but that didn't stop them from laying eggs which another grey-coloured Threehorn was guarding. It was his mate.

"Believe me, I laid these eggs. I just know that they're ready for this," she spoke with the same warmth that her partner was often lacking in his voice. It seemed, they were complementing each other quite well. Nonetheless, raising these eggs, four of them in fact, would prove to be quite a challenge under these harsh living conditions but what hope was left that the worst drought that had ever haunted this world would ever end? Maybe it was just because of this that the two threehorns decided to try raising children despite the odds... who knew how much longer their bodies would resist the constant lack of everything, endless journeys and the unrelenting heat burning their dehydrated bodies after all...

"Let me guard the eggs now, you go to the watering hole and drink some before these flatheads sap it all up, humpff!" The male suggested. Their herd had been lucky to discover some swamps so they decided to stay until eggs were hatched. However, some other species of dinosaurs, most notably a small group of longnecks who were also breeding eggs, had discovered it as well much to the dislike of the threehorn. Of course it would have been easy for a herd of threehorns to guard a watering hole but what a waste of energy it would be so they, reluctantly, tolerated the presence of these different dinosaurs.

Guarding eggs was a very boring job to the male but he took on the high responsibility as if he were leading the whole herd. In times like these, with many of their members weak and sick, even an egg-stealer going unnoticed could cause great harm to the unhatched. So his eyes kept on scanning the immediate area as well as everything else he could see from this vantage point his nest was built on. Nothing dangerous entered his field of view but the occasional glance high up into the sky showed him a more welcoming sight.

 _"_ _Clouds…"_

They seemed to be rising higher and higher above the nearby mountain range - mighty towers of clouds that were white on top and black at the bottom. Most important though was that they seemed to be coming a little closer whenever he looked.

 _"Sky water, huh? Now that'd make my day..."_ the Threehorn mused though his instincts told him better than to rejoice in the possibility of a rare shower. It was just a possibility after all.

Time passed on and the heat was slowly reducing due to the fact that the Bright Circle had already started its descend from the sky. Perhaps also, the upcoming wind blowing from the clouds that kept on growing and darkening played a role. At any case, a storm seemed more likely now, a distant flickering in the clouds indicating that this wouldn't just be a shower but a downpour.

While watching both the weather and the surrounding area, he almost forgot to watch the most crucial of all things he had to look after. The eggs. If it hadn't been for a quiet sound of eggs moving across sandy ground, maybe he would have missed that they were hatching. Instantly, he dropped his guard completely, replaced by an almost childlike excitement.

"THE EGGS, THEY'RE HATCHING!" he yelled across the landscape, startling some ground fuzzies looking for food nearby. His booming voice was echoing from the walls of nearby mountains several times. His glowing eyes were now completely locked on the four eggs that had started shifting. In a matter of minutes, he'd finally be a father!

"I told you, didn't I?" his mate shouted while catching her breath after hurrying to the scene.

"Yes you did, honey," he smiled, exchanging a quick nuzzle with his mate.

"Though you didn't need to yell like that... it's not like we can fend off the two dozens of Sharpteeth you just attracted..."

"Jus' making sure you ain't missin' the show," he grinned sheepishly as the shifting of the eggs increased. Just a few more kicks of the hatchlings and the shell would surely break…

 ***crack***

"Oh!" both Threehorns moaned in excectation of what was about to happen, the first eggshell cracking open, two more following mere seconds later. With tears in their eyes, the two parents witnessed how three orange-coloured little hatchlings struggled themselves free from their eggs, squealing when they saw their parents and the world around them for the first time.

"A-aren't they…" the female stammered, emotions overwhelming her completely.

"Perfect?" the male suggested, barely trying to hide that he was crying.

"Yes, perfect…" the female managed to speak, crying and laughing at the same time as she greeted the three girls that had already hatched. Only left one egg to hatch…

"Think we should help our child, dear?" the female proposed after a while, the hatchling trying to crack the skin of the egg to no avail.

"Nah, they'll never grow into strong threehorns if we help them too much. A threehorn doesn't need any help, humpff!"

"Whatever you say…" the female chuckled, exchanging a quick nuzzle. "You're right, we need to believe in our little one."

 ***crack***

Suddenly, with a mighty kick of pure willpower, the hatchling finally managed to free her legs from the jail that had contained her so far.

"There you go," her mother cooed, her father merely putting a proud expression on as they both, as well as the three little ones that had already hatched, were watching with extreme excitement.

Rolling around for a bit, the hatchling eventually felt the ground beneath her feet - hard, rocky ground that felt quite warm under her little toes. She still didn't know how to get rid of the rest of her egg but she did know these legs were made for moving. A bit unsteady at first, she gained footing and began to charge forward blindly. It felt right to do, her instincts kicking in, leading her right into the path of…

 ***bump***

Her mother stood like a mountain while she watched in amusement how her fourth child was trying to charge into her. Given her tiny size, it was merely an act of cuteness but she seemed satisfied, considering that this was a frequent thing to do as a threehorn.

The impact knocked the child over on her back but that did little but to shake her a little. As a matter of fact… the young threehorn noticed little cracks forming in front of her eyes. Surely one more bump would do the trick… Getting up and, instinctively, facing her dad this time she charged once more with fresh strength…

 ***crash***

… breaking the shell at last upon impact with the massive snout of the adult. Finally, she could see. A strange world met her eyes but, most importantly, two tall individuals instantly caught her interest. Were they hostile? Instincts telling her to fight, she readied herself, shaking the last remaining piece of egg shell off her horn on her snout, performing more charges against the big dinosaurs without shaking them in the slightest. Apparently, they were much stronger than she was (and, to be fair, they were also a whole lot bigger) and all she had gained was a headache so far.

It was only now though that she realised that these strange giants meant her no harm. Quite the contrary, she now realised that their faces weren't angry. No, they were full of love and warmth!

 ***boom***

Suddenly, a flash of light blinded the youngling, closely followed by an ear-blowing thunder.

 _"_ _Oh right, the storm…"_ The Threehorns had been completely unaware of the distant thunder and the withdrawal of the Bright Circle until one particular lightning bolt struck ahead of the clouds to make them painfully aware.

Fear. The girl didn't know what caused the bright light and the loud sound but it scared the hell out of her, her previous bravado gone within a blink of an eye. Instincts told her to run but where? Right, surely the giants would protect her? As the wind picked up and the first, thick droplets of rain began to torture the dry ground beneath her feet, she quickly bolted to safety, joining her other sisters.

"We couldn't have been more lucky… all four of them are healthy and fit and rain has finally arrived!" the female exclaimed happily despite the harsh wind blowing dust into her face.

"Yeah, though my father would have liked to have a grand-son if he were still with us…" the male spoke gruffly, nonetheless happy about the situation. Even a storm blowing dust into his face couldn't possibly ruin his mood now.

The young family sat out the storm together. The rain would help the area to remain habitable for a lot longer. Maybe there was hope after all?

* * *

The swimmer peeked at the bunch of eggs in the nest, lying stretched in front of it while her mate and her sister were eating the little food that the trees and the remains of a once broad river offered them. The herd of swimmers had been lucky to discover a suitable place to hatch their young though sharpteeth were camping in the area, decimating the herd slowly but surely. Some eggs already lost their parents prior to hatching, now being taken care of by other families, some of which had lost their own nest to other malicious creatures that were stalking the herd. Life was cruel for the herd, predators decimating them as well as their only hope for the future - their offspring. Moreover, the climate had changed for the worse in recent years, hitting them especially hard since their kind relied on water more so than any other species of dinosaur.

In previous times, the young mother-to-be would have labelled her current activity taking a sunbath but, much rather, she was baked by the heat radiating off the big, bright and fiery ball on the cloudless sky, trying to offer the eggs some shade. Truth be told, they did need to be warm to blossom but the heat of the afternoon sun was ridiculous, endangering her future children so action had to be taken even if it meant taking the worst upon herself. At least that gave her the rare freedom to relax a little while the rest of her small family kept close surveillance over the surrounding area.

Maybe it was the fact that their nest was build rather in the center of her herd or maybe it could be simply credited to the help of her sister in keeping watch at day as well as in the dark that they hadn't been dealt any losses yet - quite contrary to the rest of the herd. Too many had fallen to count them and she wondered what would be left when all families were done hatching their eggs... Possibly, the numbers would be lower even counting all the new children, many of which would fall to diseases, hunger, thirst and predation though. Maybe they should have just kept going towards the promised lands - the Great Valley that was rumoured to be far off in the west. Whether it existed, nobody knew but it was their only chance in this dying world - just as it was their only chance for the future to raise new swimmers to adulthood to replace all those that were lost. Admittedly, chances were so low but what did they have to lose?

With interest, the young female gently nudged the pile of eggs. The heartbeat and the movement of her little ones had steadily increased in the last few days. Surely, their hatchday would come soon. Or maybe today? For a moment, it seemed as though one of the eggs shifted slightly upon her nuzzling it. Could they feel the presence of her? She did not know the answer - after all her own memories of hatching were too early in life to be kept. Though now she was curious.

"Hey there, little ones.." Talking to the eggs was something she and her mate did frequently but, right now, she wanted to try out if her children could hear her and react accordingly. "Mama is here to keep you cool."

Once more, she nudged each egg gently, observing them closely. Suddenly...

"Hey, I think the time has come!" she exclaimed excitedly as she observed one of the eggs beginning to wobble. Certainly, that little adventurer wanted to feel the love of their mother on their own skin and not through the skin of the egg.

Her mate rushed to the site quickly, observing the show in development with quiet and calm excitement, wearing a knowing smile - he would be father very soon... The remaining female stayed some distance away, her eyes switching back and forth between the nest and the surroundings.

* * *

 _"What is this? I would like to see it, yes I do..."_

Of course the little hadrosaur within the egg that shifted first didn't know any words just yet but she did feel them just as well. There had been this wonderful feeling again that woke her up and, this time, she swore, she would go out to see what's going on out there beyond the little room she found herself in. The little light that fell in was barely enough to see rough shapes but they've been getting a lot clearer recently. She did not know what expected her but it almost seemed like she wasn't alone. Next to her lay some shapes that reminded her a lot of her own cage and they seemed to be just like her, waiting to be strong enough to break out to see what's beyond. Well, finally, she did feel strong enough to break the shell, her legs strengthening every time she woke up from her slumber. This time it would work, wouldn't it?

"One is tired of being in there, huh?" The female on guard-duty yelled, snickering. Though, as she mentioned that, the other four eggs were beginning to shuffle and wobble as well.

"All of them hatching at once, well that saves some trouble," she continued snickering upon that realization. The two parents were merely nodding, their gazes fixated on the scene in the nest as the hatchling that, one day, would be known as 'Ducky', made her move...

* * *

 _"I can do this, yes I can!"_

Motivating herself as best as she could, excitement building up, muscles tensing up in preparation to kick free, unborn little Ducky shifted into a more suitable position with her feet on what she assumed was the bottom of her egg. Then she did it.

 ***crack***

With a mighty push, the egg shell broke, her head and tail breaking through first. Momentarily, Ducky was blinded by the high intensity of the light out there, blinking her big, curious eyes a few times but the fact that her mother blocked out the Bright Circle helped a lot to restore vision immediately. As Ducky looked around, tremendously excited and happy, the first thing to catch her interest was a flying object that the young swimmer quickly recognized as another living creature as it was showing movement as opposed the most of the other things around her. It was also for this very reason that the butterfly, coloured in a dull yellow colour, hovering above her caught her attention so easily.

* * *

 _"She is so adorable!"_ The female thought as she saw her first daughter for the first time. So small, so breakable and yet such a curious little bundle of pure joy…

* * *

The mere fact that there were things that were, quite unlike her, not tied to the ground, was astounding to Ducky - now she really wanted to know how that worked so she could learn it too. With a lot of effort, the little girl managed to squeeze her twig-like arms through the hole she had punched into the egg, stretching them high into the air in an attempt to free her joints, stiff from the long time of being crouched in the egg, as well as in an attempt to catch the insect hovering above her head. Ducky wasn't disheartened at all to see it gain some altitude, taking flight. Much rather, she thought that it was going to show her more of the world around her! With that planted in her head, Ducky shifted her weight. She was on a small, elevated place. Considering that something always pulled her to the ground, surely it would also pull her down that hill? The little swimmer didn't seem to be able to free her legs just yet but what if she could roll down? There was only one way to find out…

* * *

"Oh, I think she's trying to escape," the male spoke with an amused laugh.

Indeed, the little hatchling, still stuck on her egg, made use of newton's laws, tumbling down the hill the nest was build on, breaking the remaining egg shell upon hitting the base of the nest.

The two grown-ups decided to give her some time to explore, staying close enough to intervene at any given time.

* * *

 _"_ _Oh yes, I am free!"_

With relief, the young child found herself detached from her prison at last. Despite the fact that she had no idea how to move, she got the hang of it instinctively, hopping away from her nest in hot pursuit. The insect led the young swimmer through a rotten log next. Suddenly, Ducky caught a glimpse of a different creature. It appeared to be earth-bound just like her and slightly smaller. Also, it had some sort of fuzz all over its body - quite as opposed to herself, being equipped with a rather smooth skin. Now what should she do? Ducky was extremely thrilled to learn more about this new creature but she did not yet know how to communicate her thoughts and feelings. All she knew was how to show her mood. She would smile when she was happy and would do the opposite when she was not. But that wouldn't help her here, would it? Suddenly, Ducky knew how to greet this fuzzy ball. Neither did she know how it was called nor if it was the right thing to do but, deep inside, she just knew this was how to show that you liked another living creature…

 _"_ _I will hug it, yep, yep, yep!"_

In a swift motion, Ducky leapt on top of it though it didn't quite have the desired effect. The ground fuzzy squeaked in fear when it noticed the young dinosaur hopping onto it, darting off as fast as its little legs could carry it. At first, Ducky was a little surprised, then slightly disappointed but that didn't last long as her curious eyes had spotted yet another target worthy of her attention. It looked like a rock at first glance but, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a rock with a head attached to it. Approaching the unknown creature, Ducky saw it opening its mouth wide, exposing its mouth.

 _"_ _Hmm, what does it want me to do?"_

Again, the young swimmer didn't quite understand what the best reaction would be so she just relied on instinct one more which was in tight control of her adventurous side. She approached.

The creature, a snapping turtle of sorts, opened its jaws even wider, happy to see its prey just walk right into its belly, when, suddenly, a big dinosaur jumped into its view, stealing its kill just in time.

* * *

 _"_ _You silly girl…"_ her mother had to chuckle despite the potentially life-threatening situation her little Ducky had just gotten herself into. Children could be so innocent, especially in their earliest days when they were still pure and unharmed by the cruel world around them. The more they learned, the more they knew and the more they experienced, their innocence was getting lost over time. But they had to grow up some day - and in this world, the sooner the better…

 _"_ _Huh? What happened?"_

Ducky, completely unaware of the danger she'd been into, suddenly felt herself grabbed by the tail, being lifted up from the ground with seemingly no effort. Her first thought being how cool it was to be detached from the ground, to see things from above, see the creature looking after her angrily and feeling completely free, the young child soon noticed a huge body next to her which sparked up her curiosity again. Who was this? And why did they lift her up from the ground like that so suddenly? Were they even friendly? At least, upon taking a second glance at the snapping turtle, Ducky concluded that it may not have been as inviting as she had first thought. Maybe the big creature came to rescue her? Maybe it wanted her back to the place where her little adventure started in the first place? The girl couldn't really remember all that well what way she'd been going, especially so from her airborne position that gave her a unique perspective on the landscape below her but she had a feeling they were walking the way she came from.

After some seconds, the swimmer was tired of dangling in the air. She was burning to see who was carrying her now so, with a mighty effort, she put her stomach muscles to use to lift her head up so she could take a fair look at whoever was holding her by the tail. Whoever they were, they looked a lot like her and they were looking at her. Eyes meeting, Ducky immediately recognized this particular specimen. It was the presence she'd always felt way before she could hear, way before she could even see anything - back, when there was still room in her egg and when she was constantly dosing. It was the voice she'd always hear talking to her and her siblings. Now that left only one problem…

 _"_ _How do I have to react?"_

Ducky's attempts at making new acquaintances hadn't exactly been fruitful thus far. What if she made this special dinosaur mad at her? Unlike the flying buzzer, the little fuzzy and the biting rock though, this dinosaur was giving her a wide smile. Ducky just felt loved just by being looked at! How could this go wrong? There was no need to think about it further, Ducky knew who this special dinosaur was and how much she loved her already. She would go straight ahead and greet her. Although she didn't know the meaning of words and how to utter them correctly yet, there had been one word she'd always been hearing when this wonderful dinosaur had spoken to her so she decided to try saying that word along with a happy smiley face, laughing a little as she did so.

"Hehehe… mommy…"

As Ducky soon realised, she was being transported back to the nest, being smiled at constantly. As soon as she was gently placed next to be siblings which had managed to struggle free from their encasements, she also recognized the other two presences she'd felt since she could remember - and their voices were even more beautiful than she remembered! Overflowing with joy, she got to meet her brothers and sisters at last, engaging in an improvised group hug of sorts before being nuzzled tenderly by her mother.

The whole family was rejoicing. The hatchlings were happy, exploring their new world and their parents were just happy that they were all well and safe. In this harsh world, it meant so much and it would give them new energy for the problems and hardships to overcome each and every day because now they had a mission - a task that they just mustn't mess up… to raise their children to live in a hopefully better world than the one they were born into.

* * *

The Flyer looked around worriedly. Each and every second, something could sneak up on her nest so she had to be watchful while her mate was out searching for food. It had become ever so tedious to find enough food to last themselves but now they had to care for their children as well, adding to the challenge of survival. A whole bunch of little, ugly and penetrant creatures were squeaking, their beaks, huge in comparison to the rest of their bodies, widely opened in expectation of food raining into them - only things weren't that easy, unfortunately. Food didn't rain from the sky and neither did water since the big drought had started. No matter where to go, the situation was the same everywhere.

While she was waiting for her mate to return, the female cast a look at the only egg that hadn't hatched yet. Now it wasn't unusual that some eggs needed more time than others but this one had been reluctant to hatch for the last two days now. It was too early to draw any conclusions but she was slowly beginning to wonder if this particular egg might have been a failure. However, the shrieks of the hatchlings that had already hatched were too obnoxious to be thinking straight - nor to be ignored for long.

It wasn't much later that day that the parents decided reluctantly to go searching for food simultaneously, knowing that they'd leave their offspring unprotected while they were out. It was a necessary risk they had to take though. Food was so scarce that it was hard to satisfy the hunger of their children when they gave them all there was to find. How long could they do, sacrificing themselves? Unless one of them found a plentiful resource of food nearby, they would have to give up most of their children in order to save themselves. A necessary sacrifice but cruel nonetheless. It was also what inspired the two flyers to enlarge the radius of their search that day, knowing there wasn't much left in the immediate area around their nest.

It was evening when the female finally returned to their nest, worn out and demotivated. She had barely found enough food to feed a small junk to each of the kids who were suspiciously quiet when she arrived. They seemed to have gone so hungry that they were running too low on energy to scream for food and they fell asleep immediately after the meager meal. It wasn't until then that the female noticed that something was off. She hadn't been too worried to see the egg gone from her nest, assuming the little flyer had finally made it but, upon counting them, the realised that the egg, in fact, had gone missing!

Her first reaction was panic. Even though she couldn't care less considering how hard it was just to feed a single little beak, she still loved every child or hers more than she loved herself. She'd do anything for them, she'd be a good mother to them, cost what it will! Taking a few deep breaths, she calmed herself to a point where rational thinking began to work again. There was always the possibility that one of the hatchlings were blown out of the nest by a particularly strong gust of wind or be pushed out by one of their siblings despite the wall that was build around their nest to prevent just that. She had to rule down a possible act of predation. If a predator was responsible for this, it meant they knew where their nest was and would surely come back for dessert at a later point!

 _"_ _Egg shell?"_

A good indicator of what may have happened was the egg shell. If it was still there in the nest, it probably meant that the kid was either eaten after hatching or pushed out. However, there was none. That left little to assume. The egg was probably stolen and gone. A formidable loss but at least only one life was taken that day. The female was ready to mourn when, suddenly, she heard the flapping sound of another flyer - her mate! He didn't make straight for the nest though, aiming for the ground below them.

 _"_ _What is he up to?"_ the female wondered, her mind a little dull after the apparent loss. Soon after, the male made for the nest, carrying a very familiar sight in his beak.

"This kid is going places. Hardly hatched, it's already adventuring!"

"He wasn't eaten, thank the Bright Circle for that!" the female exclaimed, the relief falling from her visibly like a rock from the sky - or a hatchling from the nest, one may argue. The young mother had no idea how the whole egg could have fallen from the nest. Surely the other hatchlings couldn't have pushed the whole egg from the nest… could they?

"I- I thought the egg was…" the female stammered but her mate smiled.

"Nope, must have fallen from the nest somehow. I tell you, this one will be an adventurer through and through just like your brother!" the male spoke, joking a little as he gently placed the shaking youngling among his siblings, stirring awake from all the action around them. "Seems to be a bit shaky but I'm sure he took the fall like a tough flyer!" As he spoke, the obnoxious begging for food began anew so the male started feeding one by one until their bellies were full up to the top.

"Seems like you got lucky?" the female eventually offered with mild interest, smiling weakly.

"Found food to last us all for a while!" he promptly announced proudly. "It's far away but it has enough food to feed us as well and not just the kids. We could just eat our fill there and return home."

"That's great!" the female exclaimed happily. "Maybe we could even go back to taking turns?"

"Probably, yeah," the male responded. "It's getting dark but I could show you right now if you like. The darkness will protect the young ones a little at least while we're gone once more."

"I'm tired but you have a point, dear… and I'm hungry... let's go!"

And so, the growing family of flyers managed to survive a little longer in the perilous environment, their children growing fine… although one had developed a huge fear of heights…

* * *

 **Some more birth scenes at last. (I did write more during the summer, I just didn't really feel like uploading anything until now)**

 **Well, I hope you like my take on the birth scenes and I hope I managed not to get too repetitive. Also, I added Petrie's birth scene, what do you think about that one? I was trying to explain some of his... quirks here in case you didn't notice ;)**

* * *

F-14 Ace - chap1

"Looks good so far. I was kinda hoping Littlefoot's mother would have a name this time around though."

Well, that's fair enough. Truth be told, I'm bad at naming characters. Having read so many fanfictions already, some names used by other authors have sort of become too familiar to come up with a name myself. I hope it is not bothering you too much (and, besides, his mother will only appear in a few chapters... which goes without explanation *cries*

shoewax45 - prologue

"This is a good prologue of this story yeah I would like to see the birth scenes of Ducky Petrie and Cera in this."

Well, I hope you liked them in this chapter, yep yep yep! :)

shoewax45 - chap1

"Well Ducky this is a great introduction to this novelization of The Land Before Time and it was great going into detail about Littlefoot's thoughts after he hatched."

Thank you very much :)

Guest - chap1

"I look forward to seeing how this develops. Rather than simply recounting events from the or"

Thank you, I hope the ideas I have in store with the chapters to come within the next few days will meet your expectations :)

Guest - chap1

"My apologies that wasn't intentional. As I was saying, this adds a new dimension to the events of the original film and it's interesting to see The Land Before Time from a new perspective. As the story progresses I hope to see the thought processes of the characters elaborated upon as they go on their journey. If you have time, I would like to see a novelization of some of the sequels as well. You're excellent at balancing your writing style with the tone of the film and it would be great to see Your take on some of the sequels. The detail with which you described Littlefoot's birth and his interactions with his mother was incredibly touching. Do you intend to give her a name, or leave it ambiguous? Even though it's only the second chapter, I can tell this will be another great fanfic from Ducky the most evil swimmer."

Thought processes, yeah. The big advantage of a novellization is that such things can be highlighted much more than a movie ever could. While a movie has the advantage of showing action, gestures, expressions etc. much better, a written story has the huge advantage of showing what's going on inside the characters, what they are thinking, feelingsthat may not be apparent to a bystanding person etc...

Although my time is more limited now that the summer has come to an end (ironically I'm getting more active in writing just now), I do have in mind to do a novellization for other sequels as well. Just don't ask me when, I'm very spontaneous, sometimes uploading a lot in a short time frame and then seemingly vanishing for months *shame*

Well, thank you for your review. I'm glad that you enjoyed it, yep yep yep (and as I said above, I won't name Littlefoot's mother)

Keijo6 - chap1

"That was a heartwarming way to start the story. The descriptions in the beginning established the film's atmosphere well and the longnecks' thoughts worked nicely. I especially enjoyed Littlefoot's thoughts about his first moments and the way you described the scene. It was faithful to the film but it managed to explain the characters' thoughts about the events. Overall, this is a solid start to a story like this. I'll especially look forward which way you are going to take with the cut parts and whether you'll add some supporting scenes around the main story :)"

Ah, so you commented here, not on the Gang of Five :D

Thanks for the review, I'm glad that you like it so far! I can confirm, that there will be both cut scenes and additional scenes, yep yep yep. :)

AllegroGiocoso - chap1

"Describing the other eggs here really gives a lot of pathos to Littlefoot's hatching scene, and is a great detail to add. Really nice to see you fleshing out all sorts of things that were implied in the first movie but not explicitly mentioned. Gives it a nice sense of length, which I think is the original's biggest shortcoming. Some scenes, like Littlefoot's egg rolling down the hill, give me new implications of what things mean in the LBT universe later on. The imagery of Littlefoot's hatching is really amazing as well. I love how you really explore Littlefoot's thought in nice detail."

Thanks a lot for the comment! :) Details... they are so fun to describe hehe. You might say I am fleshing out the film somewhat because I think there is much more to the story than shown on-screen (or, precisely, there should have been more which is why I am adding some stuff :P)

Guest - chap1

"Just found this and I look forward to more."

Thanks, I will continue adding more chapters to the story now :)

* * *

 **I honestly didn't expect such great feedback, makes me feel even more guilty for taking this long upload break. I hope I can make up for it somehow :)**


	4. Chapter 3 - This is very special

**Chapter 3: This is very special**

Now it was a day like many when the story about the young apatosaurus by the name Littlefoot starts - a very typical day. The herd of four were lumbering through the landscape which was only a shadow of what it used to be, wide meadows having turned into vast and dry plains, dead forests reminding them of the former glory of the land they were travelling through, a hot, dusty wind blowing in their faces as the Bright Circle sent its merciless rays upon their features. It had been about a year since the longneck herd had grown by one member back on a stormy evening. Littlefoot had been prospering as much as was possible under their harsh living conditions. Slowly, but surely, he was growing bigger, stronger... but also hungrier.

"Oww, is this all there is to eat?" Littlefoot was pretty sure he'd complained about the lack of food at least a dozen times in the last couple days but, or so he perceived it at least, there was less and less food to satisfy his stomach which was roaring after food at this point - he couldn't help it! His grandfather had plucked some bark from a dead tree for him to chew on but, in all honesty, it did little more than keeping him busy chewing for a while because neither did it satisfy his hunger much nor was it very sustainable for his growing body.

"The land has been changing…" came a voice from some distance ahead. It was his mother, walking ahead and acting as the leader for their small group while she kept her vigilance for both food and predators. "That is why we must walk as far as we can each day… until we reach the Great Valley." A very typical day indeed - it was the same answer the young boy got every time; and he was beginning to doubt they would ever reach that place. At this rate, he'd starve before they reached it!

"I'm sorry, my dear, maybe good luck will return to us eventually, granting us food and water, but, until then, this is all there is at the moment and this is all we can do…" She sounded tired and exhausted, trying to give an optimistic smile in her son's direction but, optimistic she was not. The Great Valley was just a rumor spreading among the herds, a place said to be a paradise where there was food and water in abundance, much in contrary of the remaining land. Whether the rumors were true or just wishful thinking, nobody knew for certain - not the spiketails, swimmers, flyers, threehorns and many other kinds they had crossed paths with since the drought had kicked off… and certainly not them either. But everybody seemed to pursue it nonetheless. There was nowhere to stay for long and no certainty that the long journey would ever end but it gave everyone a slight amount of hope to grasp on.

It was just this small amount of hope why Bron had volunteered to go find it despite the odds and risks of such a journey - chances were that he never did… and never would. Littlefoot hadn't been told about his father yet. His family had expected him to be back around the time of his hatching but he hadn't returned to them up to the day they had to get moving. Eventually, the swamp had begun to dry out and, with most of the food being gobbled up, they were forced to move and start their perilous travel towards the Great Valley - still a place unknown due to the fact that Bron hadn't returned to them in time. Their only hope now was that he would follow and find them eventually. Though, with the big draught going on and Sharpteeth being more aggressive than ever, they could not rule out the possibility that they would never see each other again.

Littlefoot felt like retorting to the words of his mother but what would it change? She couldn't just magically make food appear out of nowhere after all, it simply wasn't possible! Deep inside, the boy knew that times would get better eventually (maybe that Valley really existed? Chances weren't too bright but that was still better than not having any, right?) but it truly wasn't easy at the moment - and he was quite frankly sick of eating nothing but bark and sticks for days with no water to drink.

" _The poor boy, having to grow up like that, going through all this pain and hardship at such a young age…"_ The large female regretted not being able to help the situation, making life a little more worthwhile for Littlefoot. Of course she couldn't brag about her own childhood which was far from being all happy-go-lucky but, at least, she had a childhood, a home, friends to play with… Littlefoot had none of that, living at constant risk of death. It truly wasn't fair but what was there that she could do? The large sauropod was utterly clueless, focussing her mind on the next patch of dead trees around the bend of the path they were following at current. That was when she saw it!

"Littlefoot, quickly, come here!"

" _Huh?"_ the child didn't know what caused his rather sluggish mother to grow some excitement but he was certain he'd find out if he did as requested. Entering a short sprint, he had caught up to her in the matter of a few seconds. Following her gaze, it didn't take him long to see what his mother was seeing - an object he'd never seen before, but he knew too well what it was…

"Look, up there… a treestar!" the female exclaimed, smiling and stretching her long neck to reach the leaf which was high up on top of the tree where only the tallest dinosaur caught reach. With careful precision, she grabbed the leaf, pulling it off the tree, slowly bringing it down on ground-level for her astonished son to see and feast upon. As it was sailing down, guided by the large dinosaur, some moisture was gathering in the middle of the large leaf despite the Bright Circle already ascending quite high into the sky. The young longneck giggled, hopping up and down in excitement.

"A treestar…" the boy's mouth stood wide open as the mysterious food source came into view.

"This is very special," she explained once the leaf had touched the crumbly ground. "...and it'll help you grow strong. Where we are going there are so many of these leaves."

Littlefoot wasn't really paying attention to his mother's words anymore - too exciting was the discovery of this rare beauty of nature, this characteristically-shaped, succulent and green leaf. The boy couldn't help but admire it, would he ever see another one? Somehow, he had a feeling finding this one was a good sign that times were about to change for the better again. His spirits high at last, the young one began playing with the treestar, tossing it around to boost it up into the sky.

"I wish he could be like that more often…" the elderly female mentioned quietly as her mate joined her in watching this heartwarming moment of their grandson playing with his first treestar in the most innocent way imaginable. They soon joined each other in a rare moment of exchanging amused chuckles.

"Come on," his mother eventually spoke with a smile - they had to continue their journey.

Littlefoot was still awe-struck by how cool this treestar was - so cool in fact that he felt a hint of regret about eating it. From the second he had seen it, the star-shaped leaf almost seemed like a talisman to him - something he should keep because of its meaning and importance. However, his belly started rumbling just at that moment, reminding him of his great hunger he'd been complaining about only moments ago. So what should he do? He'd already licked across the leaf in order to discover its wonderful taste which further shifted his opinions on the matter, though he just wasn't ready to make a decision that he might regret later yet, placing the huge leaf on his back to carry it for the time being until he would finally be able to make up his mind. His folks were on the verge of leaving after all.

" _He is not eating it?"_ his grandfather promptly puzzled but didn't address the matter just yet - children could have the weirdest antics but that was just what made them children. The old male was just happy that his innocence was still intact despite the hard life he had to endure thus far.

"The Great Valley is filled with green food like this," his mother went on as soon as they had started to move. "More than you could ever eat; and more fresh cool water than you could ever drink. It is a wonderful, beautiful place where we can live happily with many more of our own kind…"

More food than you could ever eat? Was such a thing even possible? As far as Littlefoot could remember, there had never been a time where food or water had been plentiful. It had been a continuous struggle to find enough for all of them to survive. They had been in a lot of places already but food was scarce everywhere. Why would there be such a place with more food than anyone could eat when the rest of the world didn't have much at all? Wouldn't it be more fair if there wasn't any such place in exchange for more plentiful resources everywhere else? The young Longneck puzzled but he did not have the intelligence nor the understanding for such complex matters yet. Should he ask his folks about it?

" _No… mother is praising this Great Valley no matter what happens, I don't think she would take kindly to this question…"_ As a matter of fact, Littlefoot knew a much better question to ask.

"Gee, when will we get there?" It had been several cycles of the Night Circle by now that they'd been spending travelling the barren lands but no apparent progress was detectable to the young boy yet.

"The Bright Circle must pass over us many times; and we must follow it each day to where it touches the ground…" Her voice was distant, almost mysterious. If anything, Littlefoot was even more dissuaded from the idea of going there. He couldn't help it - he had to utter his concerns. It wasn't like he had any better ideas but, still, he needed to know if the Great Valley was a real thing and not just an empty promise to keep his spirits high.

"Have you ever seen the Great Valley?" This caused his mother to slow her sluggish walk to a halt, turning her massive neck around to face her son.

"No," she spoke, her face revealing that she was expecting her son to not be done with this answer. And she would be right about that.

"Well, how do you know it's really there?" There, he said it. Littlefoot was a little worried about his mother's reaction. After all, he knew she was a loving dinosaur but she could get a little angry sometimes when he wouldn't do what she wanted him to. Surprisingly, she did not yell… but she gave a sad, melancholic smile, almost as if she wished she could give him a different answer.

" _Oh Littlefoot…"_ How was she going to explain the situation to her son without breaking his spirits? How should she tell him that she knew little more than him where the promised lands were located, that she was lying to him all the time and making promises she would more than likely fail to fulfill.

" _Maybe a cryptic message might give him something to ponder about for a while?_ She had to try it!

"Some things you see with your eyes… others you see with your heart," the adult spoke after sighing heavily.

" _Huh?!"_ Littlefoot had expected a lot but… this? He had no idea what he had just heard.

"I don't understand, mother," he stated with a slight, unintentional amount of sarcasm, his inability to understand depressing him a little, his head beginning to hang low. However, his mother smiled at him warmly.

"You will, my son, you will…" The young boy couldn't help but smile at the words of his mother and the affectionate nuzzle she was giving him. No matter how much he wanted to understand, for now he would leave things be - he just wasn't likely to get any answer out of the grown-up that'd explain his questions in an understandable way.

"Come on, little one, we need to follow the Bright Circle some more," his grandmother approached him from behind, gently nudging him to move. The boy did not object.

* * *

 **Well, sorry for my long absence and not updating anything recently. Let's just say my writing was rather slow and painful most of the time and time was even more scarce than usual. Also, uploading my work really can be quite a chore, sadly.**

 **Anyway, I will continue to update my stories no matter how slow it might be. Adding responses to reviews at some later point I guess, I just want to be done uploading this everywhere :P**


	5. Chapter 4 - Threehorns never play with L

**Chapter 4: Threehorns never play with longnecks:**

For a while, the small herd kept on walking in silence. The Bright Circle had surpassed its highest position on the sky soon but the time of greatest heat was yet to come. The longer they walked, the more the heat got to them - and of course Littlefoot had it much harder than his larger mother and grandparents. Besides, now that there wasn't anything to distract him, his hunger became all the more overwhelming, making him doubt a certain decision once more.

 _"_ _Should I eat it? I don't want to but… I'm so hungry!"_ Even though the treestar was very light, it still seemed as though he was carrying a whole tree on his back. His stomach twisted itself, yearning for the food he was carrying, but the young boy tried not to listen; tried harder as they passed through a barren area.

 _"_ _Must not eat it, it's too important!"_ Littlefoot kept telling himself that but to little avail. Ultimately, when another dead forest with bone dry, tall grass, bordering the path they were walking on, entered his eyes, something in his head snapped - or maybe it was his stomach?

 _"_ _Screw this, I need to eat something now!"_ The boy came to a halt behind his folks who were leading the way, lumbering ahead slowly. In a swift movement, Littlefoot sent the treestar on his back sailing high up into the air before it slowly began to fall in front of his eyes. At least he would have a good look at it before swallowing this treasure, or so he thought. As soon as the leaf had given in to gravitation at last, saliva gathering in the small longneck's mouth as he took in its wonderful sight, the highly aesthetic shape, the greenest of all greens, the smell and the expectation of just how good it would taste compared to his usual food, he mentally prepared himself to say goodbye. In a way, even if just for a mere hour or two, this treestar had been like a friend. It hurt to let go but his hunger was greater than his heart at this point so, finally, Littlefoot opened his mouth wide, preparing to take the first bite.

" _Please forgive me, I will never forget you, my first treestar. You will always be something special no matter how many other treestars I'm going to see in the Great Valley…"_ The Longneck made his move, the neck bending down, teeth ready to bite, when, suddenly, he halted in the middle of his movement as the wind carried the sound of laughter from behind some tall grass…

* * *

"See how strong I am, daddy?" Laughing happily, a little threehorn girl with an orange colour jumped happily up and down in front of her huge, grey-coloured father.

"Yes, I see, Cera." The tall adult was the personification of strength and determination, his strict gaze lying on his little daughter. "You are strong, just like your father. However, you must become stronger; never be satisfied with what you've got, always aim to get better at everything and try being the best of them all. That's what we threehorns stand for, humpff!"

"Yes, daddy!" the young one responded, eagerly listening to her father's speech. One day, she would be just like him. No, even better than him! But she still had a long way to go. "I will always try to be stronger than anyone!"

"Great, that's what I want to hear from my daughter!" the adult spoke with pride. "You were hatched the weakest but have everything you need to be just like your sisters; you're stronger than most children your age already and you'll beat them, all of them! I just know it!"

"Yes daddy, let's play the charging game some more!" the girl inquired - she really needed to get better at this so she could beat her sisters in their games more often!

"Sure, you know what is to do, daughter," the adult spoke gruffly. It wasn't particularly entertaining to be the punching ball for his daughter to practise with but he did it gladly if it made her a stronger threehorn that was more likely to stand her ground and survive.

Cera indeed knew what she had to do. _"_ _Paw at the ground, muscles ready, charge!"_ With a mighty scream, the child pressed onward, gaining momentum as she sprinted directly towards her father to headbutt him full on. Of course she was much too small to make any impact on her father but it was good training all the same. Better take on someone stronger than you to learn.

* * *

 _"_ _Laughter… maybe there's someone to play with behind that tall grass!"_ Suddenly, his hunger didn't matter anymore. Littlefoot left the treestar lying where it was, sticking his long neck through the foliage, hardly registering his mother reminding him not to wander off too far from them. He just needed to see for himself what was beyond the grass and if there was a friend waiting to be made!

The first thing that met his eyes, was another dinosaur - not one of his type for sure. They had long horns on their face and no long neck like he did. That one wasn't the source of laughter however; it was a grown-up and grown-ups didn't laugh a lot. Just then, he spotted a small, orange dot running towards the big dinosaur, laughing as it crashed into the big one. Maybe this was a sort of game? Littlefoot decided to watch.

* * *

After a few attempts, Cera still wasn't tired of the game despite a slight headache beginning to establish - her skull still needed to harden much to her annoyance. her father silently acknowledged the efforts of his daughter with a nod each time she got up again to try again however useless her charge may be.

 _"_ _Ugh, what's this?"_ Suddenly, just after being knocked down another time, Cera heard an annoying sound next to her ear. A buzzer was hovering right next to her ear almost as if it was challenging her to play catch. Luckily, it was none of the biting or stinging sort but Cera despised these annoying creatures no matter whether they had a unpleasant surprise in store or not. Grinning maliciously, the girl turned away from her father, her attention now on the buzzer - she would train her charging skills on that buzzer now and she'd be damned if she didn't catch it!

* * *

Littlefoot had been watching for a while now, fascinated by the strength and determination of this girl who wouldn't give up at this game. Truth be told, he had little idea what the game was about but little did he care. Due to the fact that he never had any playmates, he hardly knew any games anyway.

Things were starting to get interesting for him when the girl decided to chase after a flying buzzer, approaching his position.

"Hey!" the longneck called to get her attention.

* * *

 _"_ _She's using her skills on a buzzer now?"_ The old threehorn scowled quickly for being abandoned until he realized his daughter had simply decided to switch the punching ball. _"_ _Well, whatever works, humpff!"  
_  
Meanwhile, Cera had started her chase - the insect could fly much faster than she first thought so she redoubled her efforts. " _I'm gonna catch that bug!"_ With a mighty roar, Cera charged with full might but the insect evaded her excellently, taking a seat on some nearby rock.

 _"_ _Damn it!"_ she grumbled, pawing at the ground once more to prepare her next charge. _"_ _I'm going to crush the rock it's sitting on! I can do this!"_

With a mighty roar, the orange threehorn charged again. The buzzer didn't notice her until she was about to crush it - it lifted off barely in time before Cera's skull impacted the small rock, breaking it into several pieces as if it was no effort at all. She was a little dazed but it didn't stop her from breaking another rock the buzzer had decided to sit on.

* * *

 _"_ _She can crush rocks with her head?!"_ Littlefoot stood there astounded by the girl's abilities. _"_ _Gee, wish I could do that…"_ It wasn't like longnecks didn't have any abilities - for instance they could reach the highest of trees and knock them down with ease if necessary or do tricks with their tails, but, right now, he could help but wish he had such abilities as well. With increased curiousity, Littlefoot kept on observing the threehorn's efforts to catch the bug.

* * *

 _"_ _You really won't give up, huh buzzer?!"_ Cera's headache was increasing rapidly, her anger rising as the bug slipped away yet another time, repositioning itself on an even larger boulder that gave a much more solid and unmoving impression. However, Cera wouldn't be a threehorn if she didn't try splitting that one in half just as well. Uttering yet another cry of wrath, the girl charged forward with all her might...

 ***crash***

… but the boulder did not seem to be impressed by her forceful impact, repelling the threehorn, causing her to fall flat on her back. Not even the bug seemed to be impressed, merely sitting on top of it.

 _"_ _Ouch, that hurt…"_ Cera flinched but just pain wouldn't stop her. In a way, pain even gave her more strength and the will to make someone pay for it. Preparing to give it another try, the threehorn quickly noticed that there was not much of a need since her target was facing away from her, sitting on top of the rock. _"_ _Unaware…"  
_  
A wide, devilish grin appearing on her face, Cera rose from her position, rose above the bug, ready to kill it. Threehorns didn't eat insects of course but her father taught her to kill them as a show of strength, especially since many of these had the boldness to cause itchy bites on their skin, thus enraging their wrath and damaging their pride. Opening her mouth, slowly approaching… _"_ _and then killing it in a swift movement…"_ However, it never came to that. Just as soon as the girl considered herself ready to plunge down, the bug suddenly sprayed a purple, gooey fluid into her face and eyes, which burned like acid, momentarily blinding and deteriorating the young child.

* * *

 _"_ _Oh my!"_ Littlefoot couldn't help it. As soon as he saw it happen, a surge of laughter burst out of him in no time. Never in his life had he seen something so utterly comical and hilarious. Laughing felt so good after all the dark times of walking endlessly with the omnipresent lingering doom around them so he laughed without hesitation until tears came.

* * *

 _"_ _What the…"_ Above all, even above the burning pain, Cera was heavily confused. What the heck had just transpired? Instinctively, she shook her head violently to get rid of the acidic fluid burning her skin and eyes. That was when she heard it. Laughter. Blood rising to her head quickly, the girl turn around… towards the source of laughter.

 _"_ _A longneck?! What is HE doing here in our territory?! And why was he stalking me!?"_ There was no option, the other dinosaur had to pay for this. Entering their territory was one thing that she couldn't care less about but stalking and laughing on her extend, humiliating her in front of her father who had probably been watching… no. He would have to suffer for even daring to do this.

"What are YOU laughing at!?" she snorted, her face still burning but it only made her stronger.

* * *

 _"_ _Uh oh…"_ Littlefoot had soon stopped laughing as he noticed the threehorn taking notice of him… " _and she does not look pleased with me…"_ As she took the same stance as previously when he was watching, Littlefoot realized that she was up to playing that game with him now however brutal it seemed. And he would not miss a game when he saw one! Loosely copying her posture, the longneck readied himself to run and crash into the other child…

* * *

 _"_ _Now you'll pay…"_ Cera dug her feet into the ground as she started sprinting towards her most recent object to train her charging and headbutting skills on. She gained more and more speed…

 ***thud***

Suddenly, the earth under her very feet was shaking as her father jumped right in front of her, growling with his deep voice. The girl, knowing that her father would do the chasing and hurting for her, retreated behind the protective mass of his body.

* * *

One moment Littlefoot was chasing towards a child of her size, the other moment an adult of another species was towering above him, scaring the guts out of him. _"_ _Oh no, mother help me…"_ the boy thought as he was too stunned to scream for help, standing on shaking legs against the penetrating glare of the adult threehorn.

* * *

"Threehorns never play with longnecks!" Cera heard her father speak as he drove the longneck away from her by his sheer presence, sticking her tongue out at the longneck being scrutinized by the adult. The poor child seemed petrified and scared. _"_ _...which deserves him right!"_ As if to reinforce her father's statement, the girl jumped out of her cover, approaching and driving the longneck further back as she repeated her father's words.

"Threehorns never play with longnecks!"

Suddenly, she felt herself grabbed as her father took her away from the scene. It was only then that Cera saw the monstrous longneck in front of her, picking up the longneck boy before leaving the scene under the watchful eyes of her father.

* * *

(one reason I don't upload here a lot, formatting is annoying and the site likes to crash without warning! Here goes attempt two to write my authors note *rolls eyes* )

 **Sorry for all the horizontal line breaks, haha. There are just so many perspective changes here and since my usual formatting doesn't work here... nothing I can do about them...**

 **My writing is still awfully slow at times (part of which is due to lack of time and part of which is probably my fault for doing so many other things whenver I do have time -.- ) and just like things always go, the moment you start writing a story another idea pops up and whoosh more stories you can't keep up with :D At least I _should_ have the first chapter of that new story posted soon (will be multi-chaptered but not on the scale of Shorty's Dark Past. As for that one... well, it's on hiatus :( ) **

**Anyway, we finally see Littlefoot and Cera meet each other. I felt like extending the scene a little, I hope you like it :)**

 **In the next chapter there will be a surprise. You'll see... _eventually :P_**

 ** _(quickly saves in case it crashes again)_**

* * *

 **And now it is time to catch up on reviews. Yeah, I suck at this sorry.**

 _shoewax45 chapter 3 . Sep 11, 2017_

 _Its great to see chapter 2 I loved the way you had Cera's Ducky's and Petrie's hatching happen in this chapter I forgive you for taking this long to upload._

 **Thank you very much! I'm happy to hear it was worth the wait at least :D _  
_**

 _Guest chapter 3 . Sep 11, 2017_

 _The long lost evil swimmer has finally returned, I'm so glad you're back! Much like my review of the first chapter, I continue to be impressed by your expansion of the source material. Everything you've written fits the context of the original film perfectly. I have a question since you develop the character of Cera's mother in this chapter. The seventh movie explains that after the great earthquake, the adults split into two groups over herd leadership. This ultimately led to the death of Cera's mother and sisters when Pterano's faction was attacked. Will we see what happened to the adults once they were separated from the main gang in this novelization?_

 _P.S, I look forward to seeing what you have in store for Shorty's Dark Past, and i left how to contact me in a review, along with a potential project, since you once expressed interest in working together._

 **Thank you very much! I'm really happy that you liked this chapter as well!**

 **As for your question, there are different fan theories on how Cera's mother and her siblings found their untimely demise. The theory you mentioned is one of them although I rather believe that they died during the big earthshake, falling to their death as the great pit opened. It is likely that I will refer to her death at the end of the story when Cera reaches her father in the valley though.**

 **Currently, I do not think that I will include the adults' journey. Very little is known beside the small information we get in Grandpa's narration in LBT 7 and I am not sure if I can come up with something good there. I could imagine writing a spin-off at some later point if by chance I do get some ideas on how to fill their journey with exciting scenes, obstacles to overcome etc.**

 **Holy treestars, did I miss that? Oh damn, I really need to be more active around here :/ I'll get right to that!**

 _jorrdy12 chapter 3 . Oct 3, 2017_

 _well, well, well, look I found on Fanfiction again, nice story indeed. can't wait_

 **Thanks, hope you like this chapter (although it was uploaded on the GoF like... many weeks ago so you may already have seen it ;P)**

 _Luna2206 chapter 2 . Jan 27_

 _Litlefoot is my favorite character. Always has been. It's great to see someone finally gave a small story on him. Also I didn't see to may mistakes here so great job._

 **Mine is Ducky, yep that is what it is :P Anyway, you're welcome, hope you enjoy the rest of the story too whenever I get around to work more on it :P**

 _Guest chapter 4 . Jan 26_

 _Thank you so much for coming back, I thought you had left the site entirely!_

 **No, I didn't leave. I'm just busy and forget to check in here all the time :( Sorry 'bout that.**


	6. Chapter 5 - Threehorns never play with 2

**Before you read the chapter, please aknowledge this:**

 **The following chapter is written by The Rhombus and Nimbus from their collaboration story Perspectives: Littlefoot & Perspectives: Cera**

 **I have received their permission to weave their story into my LBT 1 novellization because, let's be honest, it just expands Cera's and Littlefoot's first encounter so much more nicely than I could have ever done myself. All I did to this chapter was take the two _perspectives_ and merge them into one coherent story.**

 **So the praise for this masterful chapter is not mine. Thanks for reading, enjoy the two-part chapter :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Threehorns never play with Longnecks 2**

Part 1:

" _Threehorns never play with longnecks!"_

Despite his befuddlement at the sudden aggression from his new friend and her intimidating father, he did not resist as his mother began to lift him by the tail. Within moments he saw the ground fall below him as the larger sauropod took him skyward, out of harm's way. From his vantage point, dangling from her mouth, he did not see the knowing glance between the two parents, or the threehorns begin to walk away in parting, but as soon as he was placed on his mother's back he made his thoughts known.

"Mother, what's a long-neck?"

It was not the most obvious starting point, and it really wasn't his major concern, but for some reason the mentioning of a "longneck" caught his attention. Maybe if the threehorn couldn't play with him then this mysterious "longneck" would be welcome to play?

"Why, that's what we are, dear."

"Oh."

In his five short years of life he had mainly kept to his herd, just him, his mother, and his grandparents. He had never considered that all of these odd dinosaurs they told him about or seen from afar might have given his kind a name. Though, the more he thought about it, the name did make sense. They did have rather long necks, compared to the short-necks. His thoughts trailed off after a few seconds before another question entered his mind. A question which more closely reflected his angst.

"Well, why can't I play with that threehorn?" He laughed as he recalled the threehorn's antics, "We were having fun!"

"We all keep to our own kind - The three-horns, the spiketails, the swimmers, the fliers. We never do anything together."

Despite his youth, Littlefoot knew a deflection when he heard one. His mother had given him a "what" answer, but she did not answer the "why". Maybe she didn't hear him?

"Why?"

"Well, because we're different," came her unsatisfactory answer, "It's always been that way."

She did not mishear, that much was obvious; clearly she simply didn't want to answer. This would not dissuade the little longneck, however.

"Well, why?"

She laughed, "Oh, don't worry so much. When we reach the Great Valley, there will be many, many longnecks for you to play with."

Littlefoot sighed. Regardless of why the different herds were separate, it would be nice to play with others of his kind. Longnecks, he reminded himself in his mind, that is what the others call us.

"I wish we were there now."

His mother's voice almost seemed far-away as she answered, "It's a long way yet - past the rock that looks like a long-neck, the mountains that burn. Still a long way, but we'll get there."

Littlefoot could only hope that she was right.

* * *

"Come, Cera. Threehorns never play with longnecks."

Cera stood by her father's enormous foot, unsure of what to do. When the great threehorn arrived, she'd only thought he was joining in, the same way he did when she played within the confines of the herd, but this was different. He was glaring, snarling at the young longneck who had surprised her, the one who had dared to laugh at her admitted embarrassment at the tail end of a squirting buzzer. In other words, it seemed "play" was the farthest thing from his mind. Was this strange creature an enemy of some kind? Cera was deeply confused. Behind the safety of her father's foot, she stuck her tongue out at the longneck, payback for his mocking laughter. As if to back her up, her father growled menacingly at him, forcing the longneck back until he was well clear of her.

It was clear now to Cera where her father stood on the longneck's presence. He was something weaker, something to be intimidated. And even as her long-necked adversary's mother approached, a towering creature that would probably have frightened her had she been alone, she decided to prove herself to him, to prove once again that she could be just as strong as her father.

"Threehorns never play with longnecks!" she echoed, just before a familiar pressure clamped down on her tail, dragging her back and up into the air. She looked up just in time to see the mother longneck and her own father meet each other's eyes before giving one another a curt nod and parting ways.

She didn't understand it. If her father didn't want the longneck around, but didn't want her going anywhere near him, then what was she to do? She wasn't about to let some stranger laugh at her and get away with it, and she doubted her father would have wanted that either. He'd always told her to stick up for herself, and this? This was hardly that. This was running away.

"Daddy, where are we going? Why'd you take me away from the longneck?"

The larger threehorn set his daughter down, and when she looked up at him, she saw disappointment in his eyes.

"You ran away from our lesson, Cera. I won't have you hanging around with stuck-up, untrustworthy longnecks while there are still things I have left to teach you. The Mysterious Beyond is not a forgiving place, and I-"

"But he laughed at me!" she protested, "and you just pulled me away!"

"Don't interrupt me!" her father barked, and Cera settled down. She knew that voice, and it was a voice best obeyed. Disobedience could cost her a meal, or ground her to the herd for the next few days, both of which were less than appealing options.

"Cera, I don't want you anywhere near that longneck or his kind," he continued, looking down the hill. At the bottom, the rest of his herd had gathered, some enjoying the afternoon light, others going about their business, eating whatever food they could find and drinking from the nearby stream.

"Why not? He wasn't stuck-up or anything. I just didn't want him to laugh at me, that's all! I thought you wanted me to stick up for myself!"

"I do, but… but this is different."

"Why is it different? I was just trying to be like you!"

"I don't want you to be like me, Cera. Not right now, anyway. Right now, I want you to listen so that one day you have the chance to grow up and be like me."

"I wasn't going to hurt him or anything," she protested.

"I'm not worried about whether or not some longneck child gets hurt. It's you I'm looking out for."

At this, Cera tilted her head in confusion. There was nothing remotely dangerous about the longneck. It wasn't as if he was a sharptooth, and when they'd met, she hadn't seen anything dangerous about him. Just a curious kid about her age with a goofy smile and an annoying laugh.

"I don't need protection. There's nothing dangerous about Leaf Eaters. It's just sharpteeth I should be scared of."

Her father sighed, his shoulders sagging in the way they did when she wasn't listening to him. He looked down the hill, past the stream, as if trying to find something. When his eyes locked onto it, he nodded.

"Come with me, Cera. There's something I want to show you."

* * *

The little longneck twitched as the unwelcome light of the Bright Circle appeared through the clouds, making his previously cool resting spot rapidly rise in temperature. This was not what made him open his eyes, however.

" _Mother…"_

Littlefoot's eyes opened groggily as he noticed the lack of warm flash underneath his body. In its place was the familiar sting of the scorched ground. It was only when he heard his mother's thunderous snore to his side that he relaxed.

"Looks like someone just woke up from a nap."

Littlefoot turned towards the familiar kind voice of his grandfather. His words had come across as a whisper, but had echoed like a distant thunderstorm. The little longneck prepared to speak when the sudden snore of his mother again alerted him to the fact that she was slumbering. As a result he slowly walked to his grandfather as his mother and grandmother slept peacefully.

"Grandpa? Are we staying here?" Littlefoot looked around, "And where is here?"

This earned a hearty chuckle from the elder longneck as he looked out in the distance with his massive neck.

"We might stay here for the night, Littlefoot, but we are not staying here. As for where this is… well it is still the Mysterious Beyond, but at least there is a stream here."

"A stream?!" Littlefoot exclaimed until his grandmother's snore again alerted him to the fact that his elders were sleeping. His next words were quieter, "I am thirsty…"

As the little longneck felt the inside of his dry mouth with his tongue he could remember just how long ago it has been since he had a proper drink.

The elderly longneck nodded as he looked towards the stream, "We figured as much, little one. Perhaps you could get a drink and go play while your mother sleeps... just don't go too far. My neck has limits, you know?" Grandpa Longneck chuckled at his own joke.

This sounded like a perfectly sensible idea to the young longneck, "Great! Maybe I can find a new friend again, like that threehorn!"

As Littlefoot prepared to bounce off he did not notice as his grandfather's expression became one of concern. Taking one more look to make sure that his mate was soundly asleep, he spoke to his grandson once more.

"Littlefoot?"

The little longneck stopped. He knew that voice… that was the voice that usually came before him being corrected about something. But what could he have done wrong here? Reluctantly he turned around.

"Yes, Grandpa?"

The elder sighed. To explain to a child how things should be, and to explain how they actually are, were two totally different things.

"Let me tell you a story."

Parched mouth or not, Littlefoot needed no further prompting once the subject of a story was brought up. The stories that his grandparents often told about life when they were his age were always engrossing. To hear about lands lush with green, and many longnecks everywhere… it was like something out of a good sleep story. As it was the little longneck had never seen another child of his kind ever since he had been hatched.

In fact, Cera had been one of the few children of another kind he had ever seen.

Seeing that he had the little sauropod's attention, Grandpa Longneck began his tale, "It all began back before the Mountains darkened the sky, before the streams dried and the herds thinned, before the time of changes, and before I met my Time of Great Growing; back when I was around your age, still a small youngling…"

Littlefoot listened, mesmerized. It was still hard for him to believe that his mother and his grandparents could have been anything else but the wise, massive sauropods that he saw today. But if they said that they had been his age once then that must have been true…

"Back in those days I was part of a small herd, though by no means as small as ours," he laughed but it was a subdued laugh, "and we resided in a small valley in the shadows of the Four Mountains. It was there that I and my siblings were hatched. Though my poor mother sometimes had difficulty watching us all. As we have found with you, sometimes watching one child can be a lot to handle…"

His grandfather nuzzled him, as Littlefoot laughed.

"…but to watch twelve little ones was a monumental task for even the best of mothers. And your Great-Grandmother was certainly among the best. Because of her seven of us made it to our Time of Great Growing, four of us sadly falling to the coughing sickness."

Littlefoot looked down at this. He remembered vaguely his experience with the coughing sickness, and how he had felt so warm even though it was in the middle of a Cold Time. The days stretched on like an endless sleep story… until suddenly he began to recover. Though concept of death was still foreign to his personal experience, Littlefoot had begun to realize how close he had come. It seemed that his grandfather's siblings were not so lucky.

"But it is the one that did not fall to the sickness that I want to tell you about today, little one. Because what happened to him is something that I want you to make sure that you avoid."

Littlefoot was now quite curious, "What happened?"

His grandfather raised his neck further, as if he were looking at something in the distance. As if he were looking for a lost friend that was just out of sight.

"Gatus was like me in many ways at that age. A playful boy, but also quite a source of trouble when it came to being back at the nest in time for sleep. He would often lead us on adventures in those young days… from trying to find tinysauruses that supposedly existed in the mountains, to trying to find sweet bubbles by the streams. Many of my earliest memories involve him in some way. But, sadly, he never learned the lesson that the rest of us learned before it was too late. That was because he was the one who forced us to learn that hard lesson."

"It all began one fine morning, before the Bright Circle had even risen. I felt Gatus nudge my side…"

" _Hmmm… What is it Gatus, the Bright Circle is still asleep and I think it has a good idea."_

 _The playful brown longneck rolled his eyes, "Oh don't be lazy-neck, Baku! I saw it again."_

 _By this time Baku was quite ready to return to his slumber, even faking a snore in the hopes that Gatus would take the hint. As soon as he felt a small tail cover his nostrils playfully, he gave up his attempt. As soon as Gatus put his mind up to something there was little that could dissuade him._

" _Saw what?" Baku groaned as he forced himself off, shaking the morning dew off of his extremities._

" _The all-necks!" Gatus beamed, "Which means that someone owes me their share of the sweet bubbles today…"_

 _Baku glared at his brother, "And you think I am going to take your word for it? Show me these supposed all-necks, Gatus."_

The elderly longneck shook his head, "But much to my amazement the all-necks, as we children called them then, were right where Gatus had indicated. Several small belly-sliders, as they are actually called, slithered on the bare rocks in the shadows of the Four Mountains. I was quite prepared to concede my sweet bubbles, but Gatus just couldn't let it stop there. This was something new… something exciting… he just had to find out more…"

" _I don't think that they can talk."_

 _As if in response to Gatus's observation, the larger of the belly sliders began to raise its head skyward, its imposing body now becoming visible. Even Gatus could not mistake this for something other than a threat display._

 _He reared back just in time to avoid any further escalation as the belly slider hissed at him._

" _Well good job, Gatus. I don't know what it just said, but I don't think it is happy with you."_

 _Gatus smirked at his brother, "Oh you are just bitter because you lost our bet! But I wonder why Momma never really told us about these."_

 _Baku shrugged with his neck, "Maybe she has never seen them before?"_

 _Gatus rolled his eyes as he looked back at his brother, momentarily taking his eyes off of the snakes, "Oh come on, Mom has seen everything! I am sure that…"_

 _What happened next would forever be etched into Grandpa Longneck's mind even though it only took a few seconds. Unknown to the small sauropods, the belly sliders they could see where only the juveniles of a much larger snake. In the end Gatus never saw the large snake in the trees until it was too late. In one swift motion it fell from the tree and wrapped itself around the small sauropod, preventing him from even letting out more than a panicked squeak. Within moments his brother's eyes bulged as he was slowly suffocated by the massive predator. The frightened stare of his brother as his life left him was something that would forever remain in the small sauropod's mind._

 _The time of adventures had come to an end._

Grandpa Longneck shivered. He had avoided giving his small grandson any of the gruesome details in his retelling, but that did not stop the memories from playing in his mind.

"Later, once we had mourned brave Gatus, our mother explained to us what those were. They were belly sliders, and though they often looked harmless and were quite small, some could act like sharpteeth when it came to younglings. This was where Gatus's bravery and curiosity had led, and we all learned a hard lesson that day: A longneck does not need to be afraid of everything, but he does need to be cautious; never greet a new situation until you learn more about it."

To say that Littlefoot was shocked into silence would be an understatement. He had only seen a belly slider once, and had wondered why his grandparents had quickly stomped on it before it could get closer to him. Now he knew the answer. Sometimes danger came from even the least likely places.

"This is why we want you to be careful about playing with other kinds, Littlefoot. You are still young and learning, but sometimes life does not give us time to learn all of the lessons that we need. This is why we have parents and grandparents who can help us learn these things. Do you understand?"

Littlefoot nodded. "But… the threehorn did not seem like a belly slider. She had more than just a neck. Her dad was scary though."

Grandpa Longneck could only chuckle at his grandson's innocence. He still had much to learn about the ways of the world and his experience would harden his mind, but he knew that his grandson's heart was pure.

"Well, just remember to let us know if you see any others, okay? It is better to watch from afar than to put yourself in potential danger," Grandpa Longneck asked before his grandson nodded in agreement, "But I think a certain little longneck might want to get a drink of water and play before his mother wakes up… we have a long journey ahead of us."

Littlefoot needed no further prompting as he bounded off towards the steam. It was as if the horrors of the story had not even reached his awareness. For some reason this made the elder smile.

He had no idea how wrong he was.

* * *

Cera and her father walked down the hill, past the stream and a short distance away from the herd. The area he led her to wasn't anything special; it looked like everywhere else nearby - dry with a few scattered bushes here and there for grazing. The whole place was a bit of a shallow canyon or depression, the sort of place water might have gathered in wetter times.

Her father led her on in silence to a dry riverbank where he stopped. Cera couldn't see what was on the other side of him; he seemed to be deliberately blocking her line of sight with his body. But there was a strange smell in the air - a sort of musty, dead-leaf smell that caused her to wrinkle her nose in disgust. She wasn't sure what was in this place that was so important for her to see, but she suddenly felt uneasy. Whatever it was, it wasn't anything good.

Her father seemed to hesitate for a moment, his head turning as he looked at something only he could see. Then, closing his eyes, he took a few steps back, revealing what his body had blocked from her sight. Cera had to hold back a scream. Bones, bleached white by the Bright Circle, littered the ground, making up an entire Threehorn skeleton lying on its side near the riverbed. She'd never seen a skeleton up close before, and the rush of sheer terror she felt almost sent her scrambling back to the herd for safety. But her father's strong foot held firm behind her, keeping her from retreating.

"Look."

Against every instinct urging her not to, Cera looked, staring into the hollow sockets where once eyes sat, eyeing the teeth curved in a perpetual, horrifying grin. She imagined the whole thing standing up, approaching her as she stood locked in place, its white teeth chattering as breeze twisted and wormed its way through hollow cheekbones and cavernous ribs. She fell onto her belly, trembling as she shut her eyes, covering them with her feet.

"Cera, open your eyes" her father said. He didn't sound angry, but his tone carried a measure of force within it. "Be brave. Stand up and walk with me."

Shivering, she slowly removed her front feet from her eyes, lifting herself onto wobbly, unsteady legs as she tried to avoid those terrible, empty sockets. Her father was already making his way over to the skeleton. He stood between herself and it, and that seemed to bring a small amount of comfort to her. Swallowing back her fears, she followed him. He stood by the carcass, examining the unfortunate Threehorn's ribs, eyeing them carefully.

"What do you think did this?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the bones.

"Sh- Sharptooth," she whispered, quaking as she gave him the only answer that seemed logical. Sharpteeth were killers, enemies of the herd and of all Leaf Eaters. But to her surprise, her father shook his head.

"No. Look closer at these bones. See how they're cracked? And there are no tooth marks at all. This wasn't done by a sharptooth; it was done by another Leaf Eater. Probably a threehorn."

In that instant, Cera felt as if someone had struck her. She actually stumbled, losing her balance for a moment as she tried to comprehend her father's words.

"But… but… Leaf Eaters aren't supposed to kill each other. That doesn't make any sense."

"No, it doesn't. But it still happens. Sharpteeth aren't the only threat we face. Sometimes the greatest dangers are the ones we don't expect; the ones that hide behind a friendly face." He nudged the skeleton to prove his point, and the rattle it produced made Cera shiver.

"That's why I can't let you play with the longneck. He may be a Leaf Eater, he may even be just like you, but he is not harmless, and the rest of his kind is certainly not harmless. The truth is- It's not just longnecks, Cera. You can't trust anyone. Not until you've earned their respect, at least. Not until you know you can trust them with your life. Forget that even once, and you could end up like this poor fellow here. The world we live in does not care about you. No one you meet has your best interests in mind. Live for yourself, and no one else. Forget the longneck, and one day you'll be glad you did."

Devastated, Cera fell back down, shaking uncontrollably. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she covered her eyes again. Her father only grunted a response.

"So you see, now, that some things do scare me."

Cera continued to weep quietly, shuddering as she lay on the ground. Had she seen her father at that moment, she might have noticed the pity in his eyes, a fleeting image that passed as quickly as it appeared.

"Get up," he said.

Obediently, Cera did as she was told. She was a mess, the tears mingling with the buzzer juice on her face from earlier.

"Chin up, Cera. You're stronger than this. I know this is hard, but you're a threehorn. The world expects you to push through this, and so do I." He looked down at the bones again, this time bearing an angry scowl.

"Day is fading. We should go now. Go wash yourself in the stream before you return."

"Yes, Daddy," Cera sniffed, getting to her feet and plodding off toward the sound of the trickling stream.

"And Cera-"

She turned around, fixing him with her baleful, gleaming green eyes.

"Don't go anywhere near the longnecks."

But those words weren't necessary anymore. Right now, she had no intention of going anywhere near anything without three horns on its head. And even that was a stretch.

* * *

 **As always, apologies for the long wait. My writing motivation is on and off and if I have some I usually take part in the LBT prompt challenge on the Gang of Five Forum which thus keeps me busy with writing shorter stories (some of which I shall upload today as well).**

 **Again, I should mention that I didn't write this but merely adapted it into my story and finally found the muse to upload it today. All praise belongs to** **The Rhombus** **and Nimbus.**

 **I've been putting off doing part 2 in a while since it's a lot of work to merge all the dialogue between the two young dinosaurs which you can expect in the second part but I hope that I can get my hands around that soon. We'll see.**

* * *

Guest chapter 5 . Mar 16

It's great to see you again most evil swimmer. This is going to be shorter than my previous reviews, considering the length of the chapter a longer review would just be my usual compliments regarding your perfect characterization of everyone involved. Admittedly I don't understand what you meant by "did I miss that", although if it's in regards to the potential concept I mentioned earlier I assure you that you didn't miss anything. If you're interested you need only to express your interest by posting on the LBT Squad Facebook page so we can discuss it. My apologies for the rather consistent messages on Shorty's Dark Past, I hope I didn't annoy you, it's just my favorite and you know what dedication can do. Thanks again for coming back and responding to your fans. I look forward to more of your work as always.

 **Just as great to hear from you again too :)**

 **I did send a message to the LBT Squad page a while back but no response ever came. Maybe I failed to make clear who I am? Well, I shall send you a message on there later today, once I've given a proper update now that I have some time and muse today. Thanks for sticking by despite my horrible update behavior! :)**


	7. Chapter 5 - Part 2

Part 2:

For the first time that day, Cera was alone, with nothing but her own thoughts to keep her company. She hated it. Every time she closed her eyes, listening to the soft trickle of the stream as it flowed uncaringly on, she saw the hollow, dark eye sockets, imagined the clacking teeth and that terrifying, frozen grin.

 _It's not just Longnecks, Cera. You can't trust anyone. Not until you've earned their respect, at least. Not you know you can trust them with your life. Forget that even once, and you could end up like this poor fellow here. The world we live in does not care about you. No one you meet has your best interests in mind. Live for yourself, and no one else. Forget the Longneck, and one day you'll be glad you did._

She wished she could. Right now, she wished she had never met the Longneck in the first place. He'd seemed so friendly, so inquisitive (in a goofy sort of way), but how much of that could she believe anymore? What if he was just waiting for the chance to finish her off, just like the dead Threehorn? Cera shivered in spite of the warm afternoon air. These weren't the sort of things one should think about before bedtime.

* * *

 _"A longneck does not need to be afraid of everything, but he does need to be cautious; never greet a new situation until you learn more about it."_

His grandfather's voice echoed in the longneck's head as he sniffed around the dried bushes, looking for anything to do. He would have loved to play with that threehorn, but his elder's wise words did more than even his mother's to instill a sense of caution. But, as was common with the mind of a young child, mischief soon made itself known in the form of a question.

 _I can't play with her, but maybe I can watch her? After all, Grandpa said that I should learn more about stuff before I see stuff._

The longneck's face turned from one of speculation to one of determination. Yes… that was exactly what he was going to do.

Placing his head towards the ground in the best attempt at hiding his body that he could muster, he proceeded into the bushes, seeing if he could find the mysterious threehorn once more.

As he scurried through the bushes, or rather, what was left of their desiccated husks, he allowed his thoughts to turn to the threehorn once more. She certainly acted tough, but Littlefoot could sense that she was a kid like him. How threatening could she be?

But that was when a terrifying thought came to him: the snake in his Grandpa's story appeared friendly as well. But that did not save his childhood friend…

Littlefoot did not realize that he had hunkered down even further until his neck nearly collided with a small rock. It was only then that he decided to stick his head out of the bushes in order to see if he could find a sign of the elusive threehorn. What greeted his eyes instead was something no less interesting.

Water!

He rose from his hiding spot and proceeded to run towards the small stream, before suddenly skidding to a halt, remembering his self-imposed mission. He could not find the threehorn if she found him first… and what could happen to him if that happened?

Against his will he forced himself back into the bushes, deciding to follow the stream. Perhaps the threehorn would have the same idea as him and drink without looking first? If so then he could do his watching, just like his Grandpa had said.

Littlefoot did not let the fact that his Grandfather had said nothing specifically about spying on threehorns dissuade him from his reasoning. How else was he supposed to learn about threehorns except by watching them?

He kept his body flush with the dessicated bushes until he heard something in the distance. Something that sounded like an agitated sigh.

He hunkered down. He had found her.

He peered over the dried remains of a bush as he took a good look at the yellow threehorn. This was not the prideful spitfire that he had seen on display earlier on this day, but rather a brooding collection of horns and angst. How could something change so profoundly.

 _Just like the snake..._

"It's not fair!"

Littlefoot fought against every instinct as the threehorn called out in rage and kicked a pebble into the water, causing a minor splash before sinking out of sight. This was true anger. Littlefoot had never really seen this before, and as such it both excited and terrified him. Moving his neck to catch a better view, he finally decided to step out into the tall grass, using their mighty stalks as his hiding place. It was right then that the threehorn turned around.

* * *

A leaf floated downstream, shriveled and dead just like most of the others, and she was reminded of why the grown-ups were making this migration in the first place. At the end of their trail lay the Great Valley. Up until today the prospect of a green paradise filled with all sorts of strange and wonderful dinosaurs had seemed too good to be true. Now it only filled her with dread. So many unfamiliar faces, just like the Longneck. Who could say which ones were sincere and which were not? She sighed, watching the leaf trail away until it disappeared, either beneath the surface of the water or behind some unseen bend. These were grown-up problems, not hers.

"It's not fair!" she growled, kicking a pebble into the water. The projectile made an insignificant splash, creating barely a ripple before it, too, sunk out of sight. She turned away from the stream; even rock-kicking wasn't enough to alleviate her fears.

And then she saw it- something unnatural, standing perfectly still among the gently blowing blades of tall grass. She didn't know exactly what it was, but it definitely wasn't something natural. Something glinted among the dull colors of the grass. Eyes? Someone was watching her; had to be. A chill ran down her spine, and she began to paw at the ground, snorting.

"Show yourself!" she called out, her gruff Threehorn voice unable to mask the wavering fear in her tone.

* * *

Littlefoot's heart skipped a beat. Had she seen him?

He didn't have to wait long for his answer as the threehorn reared back and began to paw at the ground, trying her best to look intimidating.

"Show yourself!"

Littlefoot hesitated, for a moment unsure of what to do. Should he run? Should he obey the threehorn's command? It was only with reluctance that he stepped through the grass, his face an impassive mask.

* * *

Cera recognized the Longneck as soon as he left his hiding place in the grass. She'd remember his pale, reddish-brown colors, his dark eyes, and that quirky smile anywhere. But where once she'd seen only a potential friend, or at least a friendly rival, now she felt doubt.

 _He's here to kill me._

The thought, a little, irrational nugget of "what if" was the first thing to cross her mind. She didn't want to so much as consider it- after all, this Longneck wasn't any older than she was- but after what her father had said, she wasn't so sure she could dismiss the possibility. He was a potential threat now; everyone was.

"You," Cera whispered, grating her teeth together as she tensed, readying herself to fight or flee, "I thought I told you- Threehorns never play with Longnecks! Go back to your own kind before I… before I…." she sighed, pawing weakly at the ground. She wasn't her father. Not yet, anyway, and the things he showed her had left her tired more than anything else. She didn't have the strength to fight off the Longneck, so she tried one more time, muttering weakly, "just go away."

* * *

For a moment Littlefoot wondered if he had made the wrong decision but this was not like the snake in Grandpa's story. Behind this anger was something else… something the small longneck couldn't quite place. As a result he stayed where he was, looking at her with concern.

"Are you alright?" His question seemed genuine, and Cera gave him a genuine answer.

"No! And I won't be alright until you're long gone! My daddy warned me about you. I know what you are. I know what you can do." She lowered her head, presenting her single horn to the Longneck in an aggressive display, her fire returning as she thought of the skeleton.

That won't be me, she thought to herself.

"But if you think you can hurt me, I'd like to see you try."

Littlefoot looked at the threehorn with a befuddled expression, for a moment not thinking that he had heard her correctly. This only lasted a few seconds, however, before the reality of the words set in and he reacted the only way that he could.

He laughed.

As he laughed at the absurdity of the threehorn's paranoia, he did not notice the hint of fear on her features. The uncertainty about how to proceed… about his intentions.

Cera froze in place, unsure whether to attack or stay put. Maybe that was his plan. Just like before, when he met her challenge with nothing but that annoying smile, maybe he was only trying to confuse her.

To catch her off guard.

"I know what you're doing!" she said, her voice shaking, "and it's not working! I won't fall for your tricks."

It was the shaking voice that alerted Littlefoot that something was off. There was real fear here. Though, the longneck deduced, the threehorn probably would never admit it.

"How could I hurt you? You're the one with a horn sticking out of your face," Littlefoot struggled to bring his giggles under control, "I just have this long neck."

As if to demonstrate he tilted his head at an odd angle, as if he were looking at her while facing the other direction, and then stuck out his tongue in a poor replication of her antics earlier when he had been carried away by his mother. Though any onlooker would agree that Littlefoot couldn't scare a stingless buzzer.

Cera blinked in confusion. Apparently he found this funny, because he began to giggle softly. As he did so, he tilted his neck, craning it at an unusual angle that Cera would probably have found funny had the situation not been so tense. She tried moving her head to follow him, but it was impossible. When he tried sticking his tongue out, a clear attempt at returning her own rude gesture from earlier, she actually found she had to hold back a giggle. It was actually quite surprising to her. The Longneck had had plenty of opportunities to attack by now, and taken none of them. Her father had called Longnecks dangerous, hadn't he? What was so dangerous about having a long neck? And he was right- out of the two of them, she was clearly the more dangerous one. At this, she stood a little taller, instinctively.

"Well you're right about that. I _am_ the one with the horn. Maybe you should be scared of me," she puffed, "my daddy told me my horn is the sharpest out of all the kids in my herd, you know."

Littlefoot actually felt relieved to see some of the prideful arrogance back in the threehorn. It was so different than the melancholy that was there before. But then again the words of his Grandpa echoed in his mind: beware of things that do not appear to be what they are. The threehorn had acted all scared, and now was acting confident and poised. Could it have been an act? Just like the snake?

He maintained his distance, merely giving her a smile. Cera returned the gesture with something that could only be described as a half-grimace.

The Longneck didn't draw any closer, but it felt to Cera as if tensions had fallen, if only a little. She did not, however, let that catch her off guard. Being comfortable right now was an easy way to get her in a bad situation.

"Now tell me why you're following me," she said, trying to turn the conversation back on course, "don't make me show you just how sharp my horn is." There was less anger in her voice now, but the threat was still clear.

Littlefoot forced himself to stand tall, but he could not hide a slight tremble in his neck. Cera, on the other claw, breathed a little easier. Finally, a response she could understand. If he wasn't fearless, then maybe, just maybe, he wasn't to be feared, either.

"I-I was just watching," Littlefoot stammered, "My Grandpa said I should look at things before meeting them."

"Watching me, huh?" she pressed him, pushing him on. She wanted to see his true side, to see that he too was capable of being afraid. "Yeah, right. My daddy said that I shouldn't trust anyone. Not even a little Longneck like you."

And then something dawned on her. How long had he been watching? Had he seen her crying? Seeing him shake, finally feeling like she was in the position of power, she realized that this was her biggest concern now, that this stranger had seen her show weakness. It was just like something her dad would say.

The threehorn's eyes went wide for a moment, as if she had come to some realization. "…And you shouldn't have snuck up on me like that. It's not nice."

Littlefoot considered this for a few moments. The threehorn did have a point. What would he have done if he thought something was staring at him in the bushes?

"Well… um…" he began, trying to think of how to explain himself. He eventually decided to walk on over to the stream, "Well… I was just going to get a drink before I saw you along."

He took a deep drink from the stream as if to punctuate his point. Not entirely convinced, Cera kept her distance, but as he didn't bring anything up about her crying earlier, she decided to let it go. .

"Fine. So get your drink and move along. We're not supposed to be talking to each other, remember?"

 _And then what?_ she thought, _do I just go back to sitting by myself at the waterside?_ She glanced over at the Longneck again, nervously, hoping he'd take the hint and just go. But he didn't. Instead, he raised his tail in the air, as if to strike something.

Upon again hearing the threehorn's bossy demeanor, he couldn't help but feel challenged in some way. As if the threehorn and him were playing a game where getting the last word in would be a loss.

Littlefoot couldn't help himself. Upon hearing the arrogant response of the threehorn, he raised his tail into the air and hit a pebble with all of his might, sending it skipping twice before it sank into the water.

His only reply to her words was to give her a cheeky smile. That is how you skip a stone, threehorn!

Cera didn't know what to expect, so she did the only thing that came to mind. She lowered herself, baring her horn just as her father did when threatened. But to her surprise, she wasn't the target at all. Instead, he hit a small, smooth pebble which flew out over the stream, skipping on the way. She'd never seen anything like it before; she certainly had no clue how he'd done it. He turned to her, that same annoying grin from before on his face.

Nothing at that point in time could have made Cera more infuriated.

"How did you do that?" she asked finally, struggling to keep her temper in check.

Resisting the urge to laugh as the threehorn looked at him in shock, Littlefoot shrugged, a playful glint in his eyes, "I thought we weren't supposed to talk to one another, remember?"

"Hmph." Cera turned her snout up at him. This Longneck was a good talker, and despite the obvious danger a word-twister like him presented, she was more annoyed than scared now. He'd backed her into a corner, and she needed a way out to avoid making a fool of herself.

Again, she thought, reminded of the incident with the squirting buzzer.

"I'm not talking to you. I'm…" she paused, searching for the right word, the right phrase to counter the Longneck's wit, "I'm talking beside you… to... the stream. You know. Just wondering aloud."

Littlefoot laughed at the threehorn's obvious attempt to go around her father's rules. It was so transparent as if to invite mockery. In response he pretended to talk to his own reflection in the stream.

"What do you think, Reflection? Should we tell her how we beat her at skipping the rock?"

 _Beat me?!_ Cera's eye twitched. It was personal now. The Longneck had decided to make it a competition, and ignoring her to talk to his own reflection? That only added dirt to the wound. Her outburst was immediate, and came without a moment of thought beforehand.

"What kind of a dummy talks to his own reflection? Just tell me how you skipped the rock!"

And then she stopped, shutting her mouth immediately as she realized what she'd done.

She made eye contact with him. More importantly, she'd spoken to him. Just like her father had warned her not to.

 _Uh oh…_

Apparently oblivious to Cera's own internal struggles, the Longneck found another rock and raised his tail again. Despite every urge to tackle the smug Longneck and knock him senseless, Cera's curiosity got the better of her, and she found herself transfixed as she watched and learned.

"You have to hit it with the tip," he then whipped his tail as he had done before, sending the stone skipping clear across to the other end of the stream. Upon seeing his feat, he gave Cera an encouraging smile.

Your turn.

Littlefoot could only watch with amusement as the threehorn tried to find a suitable rock while at the same time not taking her eyes off of the longneck. It was as if she were searching for food but had to also keep an eye on some sharptooth in the distance. It would not be for many seasons that he would truly understand why that felt so very wrong.

 _Just turn around and go back to the herd. He's trying to trick you._

She wanted to listen to the voice, to the sane part of her telling her to listen to her father and just go home, but there was a smooth rock within reach. She regarded it longingly, then made up her mind. Cera raised her tail.

 _Daddy never has to know._

She kept her eyes on him the whole time as she set up for her strike, making sure he wasn't using the opportunity to set up an attack. She could ignore her father's advice, but it would be stupid to forget it altogether. She had to be ready to react in an instant if things went wrong. When her tail reached its highest point, she brought her eyes down to the rock for just a moment-

 _Don't make me regret this._

Before striking it as hard as she could. Immediately she snapped her eyes back up to the Longneck. He hadn't moved. In fact, he seemed to be watching something. Against her better judgement, Cera followed his gaze just in time to see her stone skip before plunging into the stream.

"Nice!" the Longneck said, gathering up another pebble. It actually sounded like genuine praise to Cera. Maybe there wasn't anything sinister about him after all. She grinned back at the Longneck. Now it was a competition, and she lived for competition.

Littlefoot noted happily that it was a lot more fun with someone else to compete with. Though as soon as he heard her response…

"Hey, that's pretty neat! I bet that's farther than anyone else has ever skipped a rock."

…he did have to avoid rolling his eyes. After all, he had a better response than words for that. Slapping his tail against a particularly smooth stone, he sent it sailing across the water, going in front of the threehorn as it did so. Now it was Littlefoot's turn to taunt her.

"Whatever," Cera scoffed, "you're just lucky." She set up her first stone from the small pile she had gathered and smacked it. The rock wobbled before sinking, having not skipped even once. Cera frowned.

It seemed, however, that she was not the only one to be visited by the misfortune.

Luckily for her, however, the longneck was no longer watching her attempt as he attempted to up the ante and strike an even larger stone into the stream. Such a heavier weight would require more force, and as such he raised his tail and prepared himself to strike the stone with all of his might. With a final deep breath he prepared himself for the impact…

Only to feel himself collapse onto the ground, his hindquarters stinging fiercely. The longneck had missed his target and fallen over. He had taunted the threehorn and now gravity had taunted him.

The laughter of the threehorn was contagious, despite also being infuriating. The entire situation was so absurd that Littlefoot couldn't help but to laugh, not matter whatever damage his sense of pride might have taken.

Cera couldn't help it. She laughed. When the Longneck began to laugh with her, she began to laugh even harder, losing her balance and falling over, laughing away all the fear and insecurity she'd felt earlier. Everything melted away in that wild moment of expression; it was almost as if she and the Longneck had never been separated in the first place, and at that point, her father's words were barely more than an echo in her mind.

As her laughter began to die down, Cera returned to her pile, still determined to beat the Longneck at his own game. "You know, you're not what my daddy said you'd be like," she said, taking aim and letting another rock fly. She managed a single skip. It wasn't quite as spectacular as her first hit, but it was a start.

"What did your dad say I was like?" the Longneck asked, going back to his own pile.

Cera considered bringing up the dead threehorn and her father's lesson about strangers, but thought better of it. Somehow it didn't seem right; she didn't want the Longneck to be as scared of her as she had been of him.

"He said Longnecks were stuck-up and untrustworthy. But you don't seem like that. Not right now, anyway."

The Longneck nodded skipping another pebble. "And you don't seem like the belly slider in my Grandpa's story."

"Belly Slider?" The threehorn looked insulted by this insinuation. "Of course I'm not like a belly slider. What a dumb thing to say."

The Longneck didn't seem to mind the insult, however. "Well… his friends tried to play with it and… um… he got eaten."

"Oh," Cera said simply. She'd heard of Belly Sliders and their poisonous bites before. While she'd never heard of one eating a dinosaur before, that wasn't entirely out of the question, either. In any case, it was a chilling prospect, one eerily familiar. She was beginning to see his point, and the realization came as a surprise to her. Had he been given the same talk as her after their first meeting today?

"So you thought… you thought I was someone that looked nice, but wasn't nice inside," she began to work through her thoughts aloud. "I think I get it. My daddy-" she stopped herself, not wanting to return that dry riverbed where the bones of the dead Threehorn sat, turning slowly to dust.

"My daddy actually said something like that to me, too."

Littlefoot stopped looking for more stones as he focused all of his attention on the threehorn. She was acting strange, like she had when he had first began to watch her… but now he knew why she was acting this way.

That was why he didn't mind that she was only a few body-lengths away. As she realized it, Cera tensed.

But would he be okay with her being any closer? His mother had told him that each kind kept to themselves. And mother had never been wrong before…

Without thinking about it Littlefoot expanded the distance between himself and the threehorn ever so slightly. Seeing this, the Threehorn relaxed again.

That was when a familiar booming voice made itself known.

" **Cera? Cera! It's time to come back."**

Cera looked away from the Longneck and up to the sky. The Bright Circle was descending below the horizon, tinting everything above it with an orange-pink hue. She hadn't meant to look afraid when the Longneck came closer; it was a sign of weakness, and she genuinely believed he meant her no harm. Yet her father's words cast a shadow of doubt over her. There was always a chance.

The threehorn seemed torn for a moment, as if pulled between her duties and her wants. Littlefoot could see that it looked similar to the distress she was under when he first saw her, but now it had a different context. When she finally did speak her voice sounded resigned.

"I should go," she said quietly, "that's my daddy calling."

Littlefoot felt a pang of disappointment at this, but also a sense of resolution. If what his mother and grandfather had said was true, then perhaps this was for the best? He forced a smile on his face as she gave her a nod, reminiscent of the respectful nod his mother and the threehorn had shared earlier in the day.

"So the name's Cera?"

"Yeah. How about you?"

"Littlefoot," he answered. His eyes never left her own. It was a symbol of trust, and to Cera, it was a moment of realization. He was not weak. Few could hold eye contact; it was a respectable trait.

"Littlefoot…" her voice trailed off as she nodded. "That's a nice name. I-"

" **Cera!"**

Littlefoot watched as the threehorn, Cera, looked out in the direction where her father's voice had echoed. That voice brought everything she'd learned today back at once, a swirling mess of fear, insecurity, and awareness that, despite the steps she'd taken to build up a friendship with the Longneck, brought everything grinding to a halt. She couldn't continue with this; if she did, then her father would have taught her nothing. Bearing this in mind, she made her choice in that moment.

"It was nice to meet you, Littlefoot, and I hope you and your herd finds what they're looking for," she paused for a moment. In an instant her somewhat passive demeanor changed into the assertive threehorn that he had seen before. The time for them to merely be children had again passed; now it was time to again be of different herds, different paths. "…but I think we should stay with our own kind. It's what our parents would want," she added, trying to sound helpful.

Littlefoot frowned at this but nodded nonetheless, trying to ignore the feeling of utter wrongness washing over him, "I hope that you find what you are looking for too. Goodbye, Cera."

The longneck watched the threehorn disappear from view for several moments as her presence left his sight and hearing. In the end he was left alone with the grass and stones all around him, an endless area of play for one. The only child of his herd. As he prepared to turn back towards his herd once more, he shivered at the previously unknown feeling of loss.

He hoped that was a feeling that he would never have to feel again.

* * *

"Good riddance," she muttered under her breath. The words had little meaning behind them, but they helped- if only a little- to remind her of her place. The Longneck was not her friend. If anything, he was someone to be respected as an equal now, but not trusted. She looked back in his direction. To her relief, he was long gone.

"Threehorns never play with Longnecks," she said, echoing her father's words from before.

" **Cera, it's time to come home for dinner!"**

She could see some of the other Threehorns up ahead. Her father was somewhere among them, waiting for her to arrive. They would go looking for food as a family tonight, Threehorns in the company of Threehorns, as it should be. She started forward eagerly, but stopped when something caught her eye.

A rock. Flat, circular, just within reach of her tail. She looked to the herd, then back to the rock, and without a moment's thought, she lifted her tail and brought it back down, striking the rock and sending it spinning out over the water.

One skip, two skips, three skips. She grinned.

" **Cera?"**

"I'm coming, Daddy!" she answered him, watching as the ripples marking her achievement faded. Three skips. The Longneck had only managed two.

 _Let's see you beat that._

Cera headed home.

* * *

 **As mentioned in Part 1, all credit for the plot goes to The Rhombus and Nimbus01. I only merged their two stories here and included it, having received their full consent to do so :)**

 **From now on, I will have to provide with my own creativity and skill again. It's been too long and the Earthshake scene is approaching fast. I sincerely hope to be able to stick to some schedule with my writing for at least a few weeks (at some point school will overwhelm me with work again anyway). Currently, for this story a bi-weekly schedule is considered (and actually I meant to upload this last weekend which, due to my arm injury (long story, I fell while cycling and broke both elbows but everything's good after taking surgery and a few days off haha), kinda didn't work out 11**

 **So, if I can manage to squeeze it in, I might have another chapter this weekend, we'll see...**

 **Now let's get to those reviews of the previous chapter...**

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RustyPete12 chapter 6 . Jun 18

"Man, it's great to see new works from you. This, so far, is unbelievably intricate and amazing! Can't wait to see more! Please update soon."

 **Thank you! And sorry that it took so long again. Having more ideas than time and many different interests to balance sure doesn't make it easy to keep 'em coming..**

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ZabuzasGirl chapter 3 . Jul 10

"Wonderful!  
Update immediately, please!"

 **Hmm, I hope you've already caught up by now, considering you posted this review on chpt 3 :) Thanks and enjoy the new chapter :)**


	8. Chapter 6 - This is MY pond

**Chapter 6:** **This is MY pond**

Littlefoot didn't mention this encounter with the threehorn girl when he reunited with his folks in the evening. Despite the overall positive experience, he had not forgotten about the lesson his grandfather had shared with him earlier that day. The little longneck could only hope that the next friend he'd meet would be one of his own kind.

The small herd walked until well into the night before finally settling down near a small swamp. Littlefoot was resting on his grandmother's head where he'd dosed off earlier while the grown-ups were still pressing on. Unfortunately, the little sauropod wasn't meant to get a full night's rest this particular night. Towards the end of the dark hours, his sleep was forcefully disrupted when a green frog took his eyes on a flying libella that was hovering and humming right above the child's head…

 ***chomp*  
**  
… where it was snatched by the tongue of the amphibian which had taken a huge leap right onto the snout of the large slumbering reptile where Littlefoot slept so peacefully...

"Whhaaaaaa!" The little longneck shook out of his sleep in an instant as the creature landed in front of him with a loud thud, a dead buzzer in its mouth being chewed on which it must have caught just a second prior.

Quickly, the initial shock of being woken up so suddenly and rudely was replaced by growing curiosity. The little longneck hadn't seen a hopper like this one before, only knowing of their harmlessness through the stories he was told on so many occasions. Their diet were insects like the one it just caught after all, not dinosaurs like him. Come to think of it, the hopper was much smaller than him too.

 _"_ _This one is quite unlike Cera or the Belly Sliders from grandpa's story!"_ he quickly deduced as the amphibian swallowed his prey, emitting a loud squawky sound. As the green frog leapt over his neck in a swift and powerful motion, landing on the ground below with a soft smack, Littlefoot just couldn't hold back his excitement about the new creature, getting to his feet after yawning one last time to follow the hopper, who was emitting its unique sound that he hadn't ever heard himself before. This world just didn't stop to amaze him despite all the hardship it also put them through. It was in spite of the long time he had already spent walking, discovering and learning more about this land, that it was still so full of mysteries to uncover and things yet to explore.

The path of the hopper led Littlefoot quite some distance away from home until it jumped into a small, dark tunnel that the Night Circle and the many lights on the sky couldn't illuminate even though it was about to be morning, the first signs of the impending dawn becoming apparent in the direction they were always walking away from on their journeys. So, as the night slowly came to an end to be replaced by another day, he still barely had enough vision to pursue the hopper in this dark place.

"Hey hopper, come back!" Littlefoot yelled into the obscurity, a little too scared to keep following the mysterious creature. Well, to be fair he had been hot on its tracks for a fair while now but, as it darted into the dim tunnel, the young longneck gave up on his plan.

 _"_ _Gee, just how far have I gone from mother? Where... am I?"_ As Littlefoot started pondering about that, suddenly an all too familiar shape leapt in front of him from the dark.

"YOU again?! Go away, this is MY hopper!"

With delight, Littlefoot quickly recognized the little threehorn as Cera turned her back on him almost as quick as she had appeared. Despite the less than welcoming greeting though, was happy to see her smug face again.

"B-but… I saw him first!" he retorted indignantly after recovering from the initial surprise.

"Well, he's in MY pond," the girl bragged as she disappeared out of view.

 _"_ _Your pond, eh?"_ Littlefoot shook his head immediately after her ridiculous statement but he nevertheless felt challenged to follow her, letting a quick chuckle escape his lips. Previously scared of the dark tunnel, he had lost his fear now, replaced by a more braver attitude, going after the threehorn who had disappeared in another tunnel that turned out to be a steep descent. Littlefoot quickly slid down the short slope, crashing right into the threehorn who must have taken the slide only seconds prior. The boy grinned sheepishly upon being glared at.

 _"_ _You're welcome."_

Cera's attention soon diverted from the longneck as large bubbles rose from the pleasantly warm, muddy water which had a bit of a sticky, icky quality to it. More hoppers seemed to hang around here, squawking in their weird language which not even his grandparents seemed to understand, and they kept on e- and submerging.

Littlefoot observed how Cera was preying upon the hoppers who were hiding underneath the forming bubbles and soon started to leap onto the bubbles which popped almost immediately under her weight. However, they kept on forming elsewhere.

 _"_ _Hmm, seems like a fun game, maybe I should try as well?"_

After watching Cera for a while, Littlefoot eventually felt his uneasiness fall off him, joining in the game, jumping on bubbles as well.

"Hey this is fun!" Cera exclaimed in joy, her previous misgivings about the longneck already forgotten.

As dawn slowly began to lighten up the sky, the two children were playing at their heart's content. The sky was already lightening up when Littlefoot finally remembered that he was supposed to be with his herd, his family. When they'd wake up to see him missing…

"Say, Cera, don't you think we should go back to our families before they're missing us?" The longneck looked up only to see the dead tree which the small pond was embracing with its murky water.

"Well, perhaps we really should…" the girl admitted, a somewhat uneasy look on her face. Her next words obviously seemed to be troubling her. "Um, do you know your way home?"

Littlefoot pondered quickly, surprised to see the girl admit to her troublesome situation - from what the little longneck could gather, she was just as lost as he was, thus feeling no shame in admitting that he was facing the very same problem.

"Well, I kinda didn't pay attention where I was going…"

"Me neither, it was still dark after all…" Both children were looking at each other rather clueless. "Oh well, let's just keep playing for now!" Cera proposed, Littlefoot nodding.

As soon as their game had picked up again, they had forgotten about their predicament. As a matter of fact, they were so engaged in their joy that they did not notice the shadow rising against the horizon. It was only as the shadow swallowed the pond that they were made aware of the looming danger approaching them.

 _"_ _Huh?"_ Littlefoot looked at Cera as the light of the low sun was suddenly blocked, the hoppers scattering away.  
 _  
"What's going on?!"_ Cera wondered as the ground started shaking with increasing intensity. Both frantically looking back and forth, they soon spotted the source of all this…

 ***roar***

Illuminated by the Bright Circle, a gigantic, monstrous predator was approaching with big, thundering steps, showing off its razor-sharp claws and teeth.

"SHARPTOOTH!"

* * *

 **Well, here's the next chapter. Certainly a little shorter than most chapters but it seemed more convenient to make the cut the way I did. Speaking of which... A bit of an unusual cut huh? While I was in hospital, I was reading some books to kill time and I noticed they often used this kind of cut between chapters and this was an excellent chapter to try it myself. Let me know what you think? :)**

 **Also, surprisining as it is, I actually managed to upload this according to schedule xD**

* * *

 **No reviews yet so no replies this time ^^**


	9. Chapter 7 - Sharptooth and Earthshake

**Chapter 7:** **Sharptooth and the earthshake**

Part 1:

Littlefoot had never met a Sharptooth before. His folks had told many stories about them though, one scarier than the other, the greatest enemy of the leaf-eating kinds, but the little longneck only now realized how truly terrifying, brutal and aggressive they actually were. The beast rivalled a grown-up longneck in height, maybe not quite but almost reaching up as high as his mother's neck could reach, and its build was sturdy, strong and muscular. Its arms were almost too short, it seemed to the little longneck but, equipped with razor-sharp claws longer than his neck was thick, they were a horrifying weapon to be avoided at all costs. The beast was staring right at him with its two eyes, red, greedy eyes longing for his tender meat, showing off its arsenal of deadly teeth which were, at best, even longer than its claws. A sharptooth truly was the terror of the leaf-eating kinds.

Neither of them needed further prompting. A look of horror on their faces, they scrambled for the only hideout available in the area. The pond they had been playing at was sheltered by a very old, strongly decayed tree which had long since died, hollow and lifeless. But it proved to be very useful to hide. With all their strength, they struggled their way up the remains of the tree, however the sharptooth had already caught a whiff of their whereabouts. With determination and aim, it lunged itself into the dead tree, shaking it to the core and breaking pieces off. The two youngsters fell back into the pond, losing their balance due to the heavy impact.

"Never mind hiding, RUN!" Cera screamed at the top of her lungs, attempting to run back into the cavern where they met earlier, Littlefoot struggling back onto his feet to follow her. The sharptooth's vigilant eyes saw them immediately, the beast going after the kids with great speed. Littlefoot felt the ground shake ever so tremendously; with every step the predator gained on them. Its humongous feet sent waves of sticky water their way. It was right on their toes, about to lunge down when its foot crashing down sent the kids floating away in a mini-tsunami, however effectively stopped their escape as they found themselves on their backs, watching in horror as greedy teeth aimed to swallow them whole and its foot aimed to crush them under its weight.

"AHHHH!" the two youngsters screamed in terror, scrambling away just in time before the massive foot came down. The two children ran for their previous cover once more, however the behemoth attacked the dead tree with all its strength, slowly ripping it apart.

"It's distracted," Cera hissed.

"Yeah, but not for long," Littlefoot replied as pieces of wood rained down on them. "We can't outrun it either, we've got to give it the slip!" But how to do that was beyond the little longnecks imagination. The sharptooth was superior to them in every aspect he could think of. But Cera suddenly had an idea and not too early.

"The thicket! Hurry!"

"But!" A look of shock was on Littlefoot's face. The thick underbrush Cera had pointed at was growing as tall as a forest though no leaves were growing on it anywhere. But that wasn't the reason for his concern. Everywhere he could see were spikes all over the place.

"We're smaller, we can avoid them but he can't!" Cera yelled. Littlefoot still wasn't convinced but raced after the threehorn nevertheless, just in time as the sharptooth broke the battered old tree for good, his screaming targets once again in sight.

Littlefoot and Cera ran but the beast was after them immediately. It didn't seem to mind the thorns as the children entered a narrow path, simply charging in, ducking low to avoid the thorns above. Cera jumped over a thorned vine which was strained across the path. Littlefoot who was right behind her saw the vine too late and ran right into it, the thorns stinging his legs. But that wasn't the worst. With panic, he realized that his legs had gotten entangled in the vines.

 _"Oh no!"_ The longneck thrashed about but to no avail. He was unmistakably stuck. His gaze went after the retreating threehorn who saved herself and then behind him. There, the predator had just realized that it didn't fit through so it dropped onto its stomach continuing to crawl closer, snapping after the longneck's tail.

What happened next happened so fast that Littlefoot couldn't tell what exactly had transpired. His instincts taking control over his mind, adrenaline numbing his rational thinking while maximizing his strength, he struggled and pushed against his containment, barely avoiding getting his tail bitten off, until...

 ***snap* *whoosh***

... the vine snapped, whipping back with amazing force where it...

 ***slap***

... hit the predator in the face, a thorn slicing its evil red eye. Littlefoot was free, scrambling away from the danger with amazing vigor while the sharptooth shook the whole area with a roar of pain and uncontained rage, tearing the whole forest apart in rage.

"Quick, here!" Cera hissed from a hideout inmidst of the forest of thorns. Littlefoot saw her and followed her until they were both pressing themselves into a little depression. Littlefoot panted.

"That was amazing," Cera said in true awe. "You showed that sharptooth, not bad for a longneck." However, Littlefoot had very little left for her praise.

"I just saw my life flashing in front of me... that was so..."

"...close?" Cera offered. "Yeah, only a dumb little flathead like you could get yourself in danger so...".

"Shhh, quiet!" Littlefoot interrupted her attempt to insult him. The whole point of them hiding was to lose that sharptooth after all. After its initial roar, it had suddenly gotten suspiciously quiet. Too quiet. Had the predator called off the hunt after obtaining that eye injury or was it sneaking around them at this very moment?

 _"Where could he have gone?"_ Littlefoot wondered, frightened to the bones. Not knowing where or if the behemoth was still there was almost worse than knowing. Frantically, the two kids checked their surroundings but none of them anticipated the huge dinosaur's next move.

A low growl alerted the two young dinosaurs of the threat. Suddenly, little pieces of dry wood came raining down from above as the wounded sharptooth tried to find a way in. Its eye was bleeding and torn irreparably and many more cuts were bleeding. If anything, those injuries made it look even more menacing.

"Duck!" Cera hissed and so they cowered down as best as they could, a thick spiky branch right above them. Cera was pretty confident that the meateater wouldn't be able to break it but this sharptooth had proven more than once already that it was exceeding ordinary sharpteeth in strength, determination and wit. Using its nostrils to sniff for them, it crawled deeper into the thorns until it was right above their hideout. The children panicked, would that branch protect them?

Suddenly, Cera shrieked when the massive piece of wood came down onto them, a thorn almost stabbing Cera as she barely scrambled away. The sharptooth was pushing down on the branch, trying to snap it in order to reach the children and eat them but its plan didn't work. The branch was as massive and robust as Cera had anticipated. The sharptooth exhaled its breath angrily, bathing the children in its nasty-smelling mouth scent.

"Eww... disgusting!" the little threehorn ranted as the sharptooth retreated in frustration, realizing that he couldn't reach his prey this way. Cera began sneaking deeper into the forest of thorns, Littlefoot following her with uncertainty. They had momentarily lost the sharptooth again but they couldn't hide in there forever. Sooner or later they'd have to lose the predator but... how?

"This way," Cera suddenly hissed, running along a path which just opened in front of them. Littlefoot scanned it quickly, coming to a horrendous conclusion.

 _"She's running into the open where the sharptooth can see her! It's still around, I've got to stop her!"_ Alarmed further by suspicious sounds coming from his right just outside the thorns, he yelled.

"Cera stop! You're going the wrong way!"

But Cera didn't listen, charging forward until...

 ***ROAR***

Cera jumped in mid-sprint as the deafening roar of the sharptooth sounded mere meters to her right, uttering a disturbing scream of panic and fright. She was so frightened in fact that her legs gave in, the threehorn crashing into the ground whirling up dust from the bone-dry ground.

"Cera!" Against his better judgement, Littlefoot darted out of the thorns in order to help his acquaintance or, at the very least, divert the predator's attention for just a moment to save her. The Sharptooth walked in on the threehorn, teeth exposed, his bloody eye swollen shut, claws ready to tear the child's skin open.

Cera had gotten to her feet after somersaulting across the floor, however her knees were made of jelly and shaking like an earthshake. She was effectively petrified and unable to defend herself from the salivating sharptooth mere meters in front of her.

"Don't stand there, RUN!" Littlefoot yelled at the threehorn but Cera was unable to move, her face a mask of fear. A few more seconds and her life would be ended in a gruesome murder; Littlefoot had to act. If he did nothing, the girl would be ripped to pieces. Her distracting the sharptooth would be his best bet on survival but running away, leaving her to die... could he just do that? Cera was the closest to a friend he'd ever had and although she hadn't been very kind at times, he didn't want to lose her. No, he had to save her no matter what. The sharptooth still hadn't noticed him yet and that would be his trump card. It was already too late for a distraction so there was only one thing he could still do for the threehorn...

 _"Run!"_ With much more bravado than he'd felt inside of him, Littlefoot entered a mad sprint into the open where Cera and the sharptooth were. The predator was just raising its claw when it noticed the little longneck, stalling in its movement for a split second of surprise but paying the child no further heed as the other prey was a safe kill, a safe meal. The sharptooth going after two dinosaurs misses one and loses the other after all and the hungry beast was all too aware of that. He knew the longneck would stand no chance if he went after it so he made his move... only to realize that he'd made a great mistake.

"Move it, scare-dy egg!" Littlefoot screamed, ungently ramming right into the girl who finally shook off her shock and turned tail, running after the longneck just as claws dug into the ground closely behind. Both of them ran further into the open, momentarily gaining on the confused and enraged meateater.

"Heeeeeelp!" Littlefoot exclaimed as he pushed his little legs on, hoping that someone was nearby to rescue them. Being without cover and with nowhere to hide could prove to be fatal and the predator had already resumed its chase. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the orange threehorn girl catching up to him.

"Run faster, he'll eat us!" she panicked, overtaking the boy just a little but Littlefoot managed to adapt his speed.

"We wouldn't be running for our lives if you'd stayed put!" Littlefoot retorted inbetween rapid breaths.

"We?" Cera shot back. "You're the stupid one for risking your neck!"

"But!"

"And don't you dare..."

But the exchange between the two youngsters was abruptly cut short by another deafening roar dangerously near them. The sharptooth had caught up and it was ever so furious!

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" They both screamed as their lives were once again on the line, slaloming around boulders and small rock formations that opened up in front of them, hoping to benefit from their much greater agility, but they just couldn't lose the monster on their toes.

"How much longer do we have to keep this up!?" Cera yelled as the sharptooth barely missed clawing at her tail, momentarily losing momentum which gave them a short respite.

"No idea!" Littlefoot replied, panicking as his long tail got dangerously close to the razor-sharp claws as well. "Just keep running!"

"Just how much stamina does that stinking old sharptooth have!?" Cera kept on complaining but it seemed as if the predator felt challenged to prove his very strength and endurance to the little ones it was chasing. As the children split around a broad flat boulder, the massive sharptooth tensed his muscles and jumped high up in the air, sailing through the air past the screaming kids, landing way ahead of the boulder with a resounding thud that carved several cracks into the dry rocky ground. The landing sent a powerful shock - like a mini-earthshake, through the ground. With panicked screams, Littlefoot and Cera lost their footing and fell hard on the ground while the sharptooth turned around towards them.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" Cera uttered a shrill scream that penetrated the air.

"Heeeeeeelp!" Littlefoot bellowed, trying to get to his feet but just at that moment the sharptooth exhaled an enormous breath strong enough to push the small longneck over again. The two children saw the terrifying mouth of the carnivore open, revealing even more terrifying teeth, quickly approaching, trying to swallow them whole...

 ***WHAM***

One moment Littlefoot saw himself getting swallowed in one piece, the other he saw the archenemy of all leafeating kinds being flung through the air as if it was just a toy. With a sickening, spine-shuddering thud, it crashed into a nearby rock, breaking parts of it off. Littlefoot's gaze wandered from the collapsed sharptooth to his right where an all too familiar face greeted him.

"Mother!" the little longneck cried. The colossal female longneck was standing just where the sharptooth had been standing moments ago, her muscular tail raised threateningly and her face contorted in rage. Littlefoot had never seen his mother make such a face but then again he had never wandered so far from his family nor did he ever get attacked by a sharptooth. Was she furious about him sneaking away at night or was her rage directed at the predator who dizzily tried to get back onto its feet? Well, surely there were more urgent matters than such an irrelevant puzzle.

"Littlefoot, RUN!" was all his mother shouted - no, ordered. Littlefoot felt no reason to disobey. The sharptooth was still dangerous after all and he frankly had been chased enough for a lifetime already. He didn't know how strong his mother truly was but he did know that he wasn't! Quickly, he scattered to his feet and hurried towards the towering longneck as the sharptooth got to his feet.

Cera quickly deduced who this longneck was and, with relief, realized that she was being ignored by the enormous dinosaur. Not asking for any invitation whatsoever, she hurried after Littlefoot towards safety, hoping for once that longnecks were more capable than her father had made her believe.

The female longneck felt much more bravado than she had. This particular sharptooth gave a particularly vigorous impression and the fact that being slapped with all she had didn't persuade him to give up was very frightening. She was a capable fighter, no doubt, but would she be able to defeat a predator so determined? All that kept her legs on the spot was the thought of protecting Littlefoot. If Littlefoot was lost, the future of their herd wasn't a bright one. All of their struggles to find the Great Valley was just for the sole reason to give Littlefoot a better place to grow up healthy and safe. Though first, provided both of them would live through this, she would have to give the boy a more than firm lesson...

 ***ROAR***

The Sharptooth was back on its feet, shaking the surrounding area with its impressive roar. Littlefoot slowed his steps to allow for a look back. His gaze immediately met his mother's who also seemed to look back to check on him.

"Run!" She almost begged. "Run and hide yourself!"

Littlefoot didn't disagree with that but something didn't sit well with him. His mother sounded extremely worried and acted as fidgety as a hatchling. He'd thought a grown-up longneck would be able to defeat a sharptooth but the way his mother acted indicated that he might have been wrong with that assumption. Accordingly, an eerie feeling took hold of his body.

 _"Will she be alright? Will mother be alright?"_

Cera kept on running so Littlefoot, reluctantly, followed.

* * *

 **Whew, let me tell you this was harder to write than it looks. I read through the official script several times to gain inspiration of what the original sharptooth scenes may have been like but here and there I still did my own thing as I didn't want to copy said script strictly. Sometimes, it is best just to listen to one's instincts and keep writing until you end up where you want to end up (in this case Mother's apperance). I think Littlefoot saving Cera's butt will have a lot of importance later on as well :)**

 **Hope it made up for the long wait!**

* * *

TimeLordMaster108 chapter 8 . Aug 6

"Absolutely loving this novelisation so far, glad you're including the delegated scenes in this and I loved he use of those two perspective fanfics.

I've always found it strange that we never saw Petrie hatch in the actual film, anyway great job as ever and keep up the great work."

 **Thank you very much! :) I'll keep working on this story though it currently seems like my self-imposed schedule of one chapter every two weeks is a little hard to keep considering this is not the only story I have going atm and real life can be a b*** :(**

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The Rhombus chapter 8 . Aug 9

"My apologies for missing the last chapter. It kind of got buried underneath the other stories that were posted in rapid succession.

I think that your continuation of the interactions between Cera and Littlefoot works quite well. We get to see how the mistrust instilled by each family onto their children is reflected in her hesitation towards one another while, at the same time, their playfulness and desire for friendship as kids compels them to continue interacting with one another. Though the latest chapter was on the short side, I think it bridged the gap between itself and the previous chapter quite well... and it now sets us up for one of the most emotionally taxing experiences of the tale. I look forward to seeing how this is handled in this new expanded retelling."

 **Thank you very much for the review. I was a little worried now that I've included "perspectives" which is a masterpiece from bottom to top that my own interactions of Littlefoot and Cera would scale badly in comparison.**

 **Geez, don't remind me that I somehow have to write... _that :P_**


	10. Chapter 7 - Part 2

Part 2:

 ***snap***

The longneck had to rear back in order to dodge a bite following a quick charge of predator. Now she'd have to use every trick imaginable that her folks had taught to her. Backup was unlikely as she had taken it upon herself to go look for the boy. She'd have to settle this herself.

The sharptooth grimaced as his attack was being repelled. A longneck who reared up was a huge danger. He may have been large but the longneck was even more gigantic. Their weapons were evenly matched; it was size and brute strength versus his deadly arsenal of claws and teeth and his wit. It was a match between two equal opponents.

Littlefoot's mother tried to land a hit at the retreating sharptooth, however the predator switched back into attack mode immediately, causing the longneck to sidestep out of harm's way. Both combatants became more reserved, more careful, each respecting and acknowledging the strength, skill and experience of the other. A single blow could be harmful or even fatal for both parties though more so for the leafeater.

 _"I don't think I can attack recklessly here..."_ the longneck pondered as she was moving backwards, gritting her teeth at the predator, not letting him slip out of her sight even once. She'd have to achieve either of two options in order to save Littlefoot as well as herself.

 _"Defeat him or make him scared..."_

Of course simply running for it was also an option, however that would not ensure Littlefoot's safety, not to mention that this individual was extremely determined to get a meal out of her; the fact that he was taking on a longneck who clearly knew how to fight was evident to that.

 _"I've got to discourage that sharptooth instead of retreating!"_ With that in mind to boost her spirits, she changed the angle her body was positioned in regards to the red-eyed beast, bringing her tail in position to attack. Putting all her strength into the blow, she aimed for the sharptooth's chest. However, he got wind of her plans, just a moment too late though. The meateater reared back, attempting to leap out of the longneck's range but only half succeeded. While in mid-air, the tip of the massive tail made contact with his thighs, the additional push, while not really adding to his injuries from the previous chase, throwing him off balance. With a resounding thud, several pebbles bouncing a little into the air, he fell flat on its back. A triumphant look was on the longneck's face; the sharptooth was down and within range to step on and crush. However, she was puzzling for a second to run while she could, pick up Littlefoot and make a beeline for it.

It was this second of hesitation that ruined her only chance to kill the sharptooth - stomping on its chest might've just crushed the vital organs. By the time she had made up her mind, the predator was already in the process of getting back onto his feet and the longneck suddenly knew that she had wasted her chance. Cursing, she raised her tail again, determined to make the best out of the situation still, to push the sharptooth who was growling in rage from his feet again but he had enough time to brace himself for the impact, taking the painful hit to the side of his head and neck, enduring it, staggering.

But not falling...

 _"Not good!"_ Before the longneck was able to return to her defensive pose, the predator rushed forward, using his massive skull as a means of ramming into the longneck's flank to give her a taste of her own medicine. Littlefoot's mother staggered and groaned as her rips ached, thrown off balance. Two more of these head-butting attacks and she ultimately lost her footing, toppling over and whirling up a cloud of dust.

* * *

Some distance further uphill, the two children made an important discovery.

"Littlefoot, look! That rock!"

"What about it?" the little longneck inquired in response to the little orange threehorn.

"It should be a good place to hide, dummy!" the girl replied, snarky and teasing as he had gotten to know her. Littlefoot's gaze wandered over to the rock in question. The two children had sprinted past a narrow rock bridge which had been flanked by deep ravines to both sides. They had then entered a path neither broad nor narrow, a steep slope to both sides. Behind them, there was a downward slope. Being covered by a lot of rubble, it reached several longneck lengths below. On the other side, the direction Littlefoot and Cera were currently staring, there was a landscape of scorched, craggy rock that folded into shallow but steep mountains, too steep to climb. The rock in question that Cera had suggested for hiding stood at the base of the cliff, a few meters high and about a dozen long. A narrow ravine was formed between the rock and the mountain face; it would hide them nicely indeed!

"Oh... right," Littlefoot mumbled absentmindedly, strolling over to the rock to inspect it a little closer. "Yeah, we fit in here just fine."

Cera simply gave a smug grin, taking credit for her discovery with apparent pleasure as she lead the duo into their hideout.

Littlefoot's mind was still in a turmoil. The shock of the encounter with the sharptooth was sitting very deep and the worry about his mother was eating him up. While he was out here in safety, perhaps his mother was being ripped apart this very second. The wind was still carrying the sounds of the ongoing battle up to their location and it was impossible to tell who was having the upper hand. At least, the ongoing noise told him that his mother was still alive, still putting up a fight. With a sigh, he imitated Cera and made himself as comfortable as was possible in a narrow crack... and then he waited...

* * *

"No!" The huge longneck cursed as she found herself down on the ground, lying on her flank which made her whole abdomen, flank and legs open to attack. The sharptooth uttered a terrible, triumphant roar upon his apparent victory, stepping closer, raising his clawed foot to slice the longneck's tender lower belly open in one swift motion. Even a single cut in that area could mean a certain victory if it was deep and bloody. A longneck was best not to attack too directly while it still obtained its weapons, however it was a whole different story if said longneck was on the ground. A wound lethal to smaller dinosaurs was still manageable for a longneck simply because it took so long for them to bleed out and to lose their strength. Unless one was lucky or reckless enough to snap the neck or otherwise inflict a critical injury to the neck, it was best to cause a lot of damage with minimum risk until their strength was beginning to fade.

"Oh no you're not!" Littlefoot's mother roared, seeing the clawed foot aim at her flesh. As adrenaline flooded her system, the longneck swung her mighty tail at the last second. An ugly sound echoed through the desolate landscape as her tail crashed into the predator's leg, which he was resting most of his weight on. The monster fell like a tree in a storm onto his side, howling in pain. The longneck used her sudden advantage to hurry onto her feet before the sharptooth could. This time, she did not hesitate to deal the blow. She reared up in uncontained rage, fear and love transmuting into brute strength. The eye of the predator, the one that was still intact, went wide in stock as he realized the fate that was about to overcome him. In an awe-inspiring effort, he threw all his weight to the direction that was facing away from the rampaging leafeater, barely rolling out of harm's way as the massive front feet came down just where his chest hay been moments prior.

 _"This is no ordinary sharptooth..."_ the longneck deduced quickly. That she was still unharmed safe for some painful bruises was a miracle and that her opponent was alive and well even more so. Any other sharptooth would have succumbed to her wrath but not this one... not this one.

 _"There's nothing to gain trying to defeat it, hopefully that blow to its leg will slow it down... and if not..."_ Littlefoot's Mother didn't want to think about that. Her bravado was completely gone now and she didn't hesitate to turn around, entering a fast sprint to gain a headstart.

* * *

The minutes ran by as the Bright Circle contained to rise over the

depressing landscape. Littlefoot was pacing up and down in the little crack he and Cera had discovered. The threehorn was eyeing the nervous longneck with growing disdain, his restless pacing tugging on her mood.

"Settle down, will ya?!" she eventually barked in annoyance, giving him an angered stare. Littlefoot stopped pacing around indeed, however his energy was now directed at her.

"Oh, leave me alone, Cera!" the boy shouted in a fierce voice. The threehorn was one to talk! If her parents were fighting a sharptooth, he'd bet her his treestar (did his grandparents keep it for him?) that she'd be a mental wreck too, especially after barely escaping death herself!

"You're annoying so cut it out!" the girl demanded but Littlefoot wouldn't hear any of it.

"The hell I do, my mother is down there; and she is risking her neck to save our hides, in case you haven't noticed!"

"Humpff!" Cera had a response prepared, however, in the light of their predicament, provoking the agitated boy even more surely would prompt a fight and that was the least thing one should be doing under the scrutiny of a sharptooth. Thus, she, though reluctantly, kept her mouth shut.

"I'm gonna take a look!" Littlefoot announced angrily, climbing up the boulder to stick his long neck out of cover.

"Oh no..." he mumbled.

* * *

For about a minute and a little, the adult longneck was running uphill across hard, dusty rock, the path surrounded by even more rock. For a moment, she'd hoped that her attacker would abandon the hunt. However, the thundering footsteps behind her, which weren't her own, gave her little doubt that the sharptooth hadn't given up yet. As she was crossing a stone bridge, which was bordered by steep cliffs to both sides, she realized that she couldn't run from the beast. Despite the headstart that she had bought herself, the predator had caught up until a length behind her. Soon it would be within striking range again and her chances were surely higher if she went back to fighting. As a matter of fact, the terrain offered possibilities that she could use to her advantage. The cliffs to either side could prove to be useful if she could lure the sharptooth into a position from which she could push it down with her superior strength. Once she had reached the middle of the bridge where it was the narrowest, she abruptly decelerated from her sprint, turning around to face the sharptooth head on who slowed down as well as the longneck reared up, kicking her legs.

 _"I need to push him down!"_ she thought, retreating her neck as the sharptooth snapped after it. Frantically, she was trying to seize up a plan how to achieve her aim. She began by observing the terrain thoroughly.

 _"The slope towards the left is steeper and the rocks more ragged but I need to lure him towards the edge... and mustn't allow that pest to do the same to me!"_ It was easier said than done and the longneck was well aware of it. In order to push the predator down, she would have to strike him once positioned on the right spot, using her whip-like tail. Naturally, though, a longneck was more prone to fight on the retreat. Hence, she'd have to suppress that automatism, that instinctual response to the threat. She'd have to pressure the sharptooth into a corner from which she could carry out her scheme - and not the other way around!

 _"I must be brave... for Littlefoot!"_ That motivational thought was just the boost she needed right now. Her body was facing the sharptooth frontally which made the bloodied monster very careful, very cautious, not daring to attack frontally but also not daring to go closer the edge for a flank attack. A few threatening swings of his claws was all he managed to do. The sharptooth was hesitant, it was her chance!" Uttering a roar of her own, she charged.

The sharptooth immediately realized that he was in danger, thus taking a few steps back, teeth and claws ready to strike. However, Littlefoot's mother charged in anyway, rearing up when an attack was imminent, successfully preventing the sharptooth's attempt to hurt her. The behemoth was still too far from the edge but the opportunity was too good to let it pass unexploited. As her massive front feet came back down onto the floor, footed on all fours again, the female wheeled around in one swift movement. The predator ran to evade the terrible tail strike but the impact came, although only scratched by the tip of the longneck's tail. Quickly, he sprinted a little distance up to the other side to restructure his defense and plan his next attack.

But the longneck didn't grant the sharptooth that time.

"Die you pest!" the longneck shouted in wrath as she charged again. When the sharptooth turned around, he only saw the massive tail approaching fast before flesh met flesh, the tail slapping his lower abdomen so vigorously that he was catapulted several meters through the air, landing just on the edge of the right slope, not as steep as the left but still quite a drop.

"Get lost!" Littlefoot's mother screamed in blind rage, covering the remaining distance she had put between them with one leap. The behemoth stood no chance as the longneck's tail rose, took aim and flung the most dangerous creature that walked the earth off the ledge. With a screeth of pain, the sharptooth somersaulted down the slope. The longneck did not follow the tumbling body with her gaze, immediately gaining ground, further crossing the rock bridge until the steep slope to her left (which she'd just pushed the sharptooth into) eventually gave rise to a rocky mountainscape of crooked, brown-orange rock instead.

 _"Littlefoot was heading this way, I'm sure..."_ Because, where else would he have run? There had been only one path to follow from the moment he had entered this upslope path through the scorched rocks and mountains. On another thought, it offered plenty places to hide for small children like Littlefoot. She had to find him fast and escape before the sharptooth recovered from the fall - and that, based on her experience so far, wouldn't take too long with this one...

"Littlefoot!"

* * *

With dread, the little longneck followed the clash of giants from his perch up the hill behind the boulder he used as a hideout, ready to slip back down if it became necessary to do so. His mother had been in grave danger many times but more and more awe mixed with his fear as the fight kept raging.

"Whoa! Mother is so strong and brave!" He said these words out loud as the sharptooth was flung from its feet.

"Heh? Did that sharptooth eat her yet?" the voice of the orange threehorn was carried up from below. Littlefoot's face distorted.

"Of course not!" he shouted indignantly," she..." Just then the little longneck saw how the extremely vicious predator was pushed off the edge by his mother.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed in excitement. "I think she won!"

"MY father would have just stabbed that old sharptooth, longnecks sure are weak!" But Littlefoot chose to ignore the boasting threehorn, instead continuing his observation.

 _"Does mother know where I am?"_ Littlefoot was just pondering about that when he received the call.

" **Littlefoot! Liiiiittlefoooooot!"  
**  
"Over here, mother, over here!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, several echos of his voice returning to its origin, creating a scary soundscape.

 **"Stay hidden, I am going to get you!"** his mother replied, her echoing voice mingling with the afterglow of his own words. The boy couldn't argue with that, lowering his long neck a little, taking his eyes off his quickly approaching mother and turning his attention back to Cera. Had he known though that the sharptooth was far from admitting defeat, perhaps he would have considered that decision more carefully...

* * *

 **Littlefoot's mother stands brave against Sharptooth but this fight (or shall we call it a war?) is far from being over. (and we all know the inevitable result _ ) . Starting here, the scene is beginning to deviate from the relatively brief encounter the movie shows us. Part of this is because I haven't been able to conclude a line of action from the written script nor the storyboards that convincingly made sense to me. It is very important for me that characters aren't randomly switching from one location to another and to prevent that I had to fill the holes that the movie and those aforementioned sources did not provide. Thus, the whole sequence has become a bit of my own version of this epic fight, a version longer and more detailed that gives insight into the minds of Littlefoot and his mother in particular. I am a little unsure whether the balance between action, thought and descriptions is well chosen and whether the action seems rushed or not but I'm sure I'll hear it from my kind followers soon :D**

 **I have actually written this story up to Rooter's scene already so I probably don't have to work on it for a while which gives me time to focus on other projects now. I'll probably update this story again in 2-3 weeks from now, so stay tuned :)**

* * *

OwlsCantRead chapter 9 . Oct 6, 2018

""Will she be alright? Will mother be alright?"  
uhhhhhhhhh yeah we know how this ends :(

Great job with the chase description from Littlefoot's point-of-view! We don't know much of what he thinks in this specific chase scene (besides obviously, abject fear) in the film, so his steadfast insistence on saving Cera when she's frozen stiff and then runs the wrong way is a very apt way of showing his leadership traits and "no one left behind" quality even this early on in his life."

 **Eeyup... we all know _**

 **Thanks for the review! Yes, I thought that I should include such a scene, also in foresight of the big fight they'll have one day. At least Littlefoot can rightfully argue then that he saved her ungrateful behind And correct, as you pointed out it is very in-character for him to go to such lengths to save a friend :)**

* * *

The Rhombus chapter 9 . Oct 7, 2018

"This was an excellent retelling of the chase scene in the original film! This accomplished two very different objectives quite nicely - it captured the urgency of the moment and it also captured the interactions between the two dinosaurs very well as they ran for their lives. Both of these objectives could have ended up disrupting the other, but you succeeded in allowing each to compliment the other.

Now the emotional wrenching scene awaits us... Though it will, as always, be a difficult read due to the subject matter, I look forward to seeing how you handle this in the tale."

 **Thank you for the review! I'm glad you think so, it certainly hasn't been easy to write :D**

 **Yeah... *that* is awaiting us. Trust me, I'm just as much on the edge of my seat to show you what I've come up with and I'm just as anxious to find out whether or not I nailed it :D**

* * *

Guest chapter 9 . Oct 10, 2018

"This chapter is an excellent example of how to use dramatic irony. Everyone in the fandom knows how this scene plays out, however by focusing on the characters and their emotions you were able to prevent it from ever feeling boring to the readers. This is why I prefer your novelization as opposed to earlier attempts. Noveluzation isn't merely putting a visual work into a written format, it's using that new medium to expand onscreen content and getting into the minds of the characters in ways that a film can't.

Now for the scene that broke all of our hearts as children and continues to do that to this day. I do not envy you for having to write that in greater detail, but I do hope you can recreate it with the level of solemn respect it deserves."

 **I honestly haven't been thinking about it this way but thanks to your explanation it totally makes sense to me (even if I didn't really intend nor was aware of dramatic irony :D). You are right, it is especially apparent for movies which have been adapted from a work of literature that no matter how epic the action scenes are drawn out and no matter how much the soundtrack helps to create emotions, it is still inferior to the literature it is based on in the end. The Harry Potter saga is a prime example of this. LBT doesn't have any literature its based on which gives me as the author a lot of freedom. Indeed it is one of my main aims to extend scenes and add additional ones where I deem them to be a worthy contribution to the story. Exploring a story from the perspective of the characters is a very exciting process for me and a very rewarding one as well and it has already taught me lots :)**

 **I'm glad that you think so and thank you very much as always for your thoughts :)**

 **I do hope that I can live up to your expectations there. That scene was a challenge to write, believe me...**

* * *

Vortex Lord chapter 9 . Oct 17, 2018

"Hmm. Nice job on this."

 **Thank you very much :)**


	11. Chapter 7 - Part 3

Part 3:

So it looks like we'll be safe," Littlefoot mentioned as he climbed back down into the narrow space between mountain and boulder.

"You are," Cera muttered viciously, shooting an angry glance.

"You don't have a clue where your herd is?" the boy wondered, slightly uneasy given the obvious threat hanging in mid-air.

"YOU wouldn't know where your mother is if she hadn't come to get you!"

"I… can't argue with that…" Littlefoot admitted evasively. "But… surely you cam find them again? Even from up here, you can see the river I think…" Littlefoot quickly double-checked, sticking his neck out of their cover again. "Yeah, I am s…"

The remainder of his sentence completely drowned in an ear-piercing noise.

* * *

 ***ROAR***

The adult longneck stopped dead in her tracks as a terrifying, furious roar shook the very land. Anxiously, she turned around to see the sharptooth stomp the ground in blind rage and fury. Then it entered a mad sprint…

Towards her.

 _"_ _Oh no…"_ the female cursed as the realization hit her like a slap to her face. She couldn't fight that beast with Littlefoot clinging onto her for his bare life and she was already very exhausted. Soon, she wouldn't have the strength to fight, the speed to dodge. She couldn't run away; she couldn't outrun the sharptooth; she couldn't protect Littlefoot doing so. Fighting would be extremely dangerous. Her luck couldn't last forever and Littlefoot would be in grave danger if she lost the square. There was only one advantage on her side… she was standing on higher terrain. It would allow her to strike from an elevated position which would add some momentum to her attacks but that wasn't enough to boost her spirits.

The longneck kept inching backwards, keeping a close eye on the advancing predator, approaching at a terrifying velocity. Her body had already entered a protective pose long before the sharptooth arrived by instinct. She had only a few moments left to prepare a plan… for without a good strategy doom was certain.

* * *

"What was that?!" Cera screamed, chilled to the bone despite not willing to admit it so easily. "Didn't you just say Sharptooth was defeated?!"

"Well, my mother pushed him down a cliff so I thought she'd gotten rid of him…" Littlefoot admitted, flinching and frowning. The behemoth could be seen climbing back up in the distance and he could see his mother turning around to face Sharptooth once again.

"This fight isn't over yet…" the boy sighed as he noticed the threehorn girl taking a vantage point right next to him.

"They're nearby," she simply said in a gruff voice.

"Yeah, we'd better get back to cover…" Littlefoot suggested reluctantly. Didn't he want to watch how amazing his mother fought? But, what if the sharptooth discovered them? No, he couldn't risk that. Staying hidden was their best bet after all so they both scrambled back down as the restart of the battle took place…

* * *

 _"_ _This'd better work…"_

She had almost reached the top of the hill when the sharptooth finally managed to catch up to her. Judging by their previous exchange, the grown-up expected her son to remain hidden - perhaps he'd been smart enough to pick a high vantage point? Therefore, she decided to yell instructions as she stared the predator down in anticipation of their fight. If she didn't indicate her readiness to fight and the ferocity inside of her, she'd have as good as lost here...

* * *

 **"** **Littlefoot, stay hidden! When I tell you to run, then run!"**

Littlefoot heard his mother's words loud and clear - probably she wasn't very far from his position anymore but he did not dare look, his heart racing, its rhythm increasing by the minute in excitement and dread.

"Okay, understood!" he exclaimed against another roar of the sharptooth, though he was rather puzzled as to why these orders had been imposed upon him. Well, knowing his mother, she probably had a plan as well as a plan B.

"And what about ME?!" Cera ranted grudgingly. The threehorn was feeling rather left out and ignored and she hated that with a passion.

"Just come along then," Littlefoot answered with a shrug.

"BUT…" Cera quickly lowered her voice as she realized that their presence shouldn't be made obvious. "But Littlefoot, do I look like a flathead? She'll crush me!"

"Oh, I hardly think so," Littlefoot reassured, looking at the frightened and panicked threehorn funnily. "Mother is kind."

"Well, YOU are a longneck but what am I?! Don't you remember my daddy?!"

"Oh, that was your dad, huh?" Littlefoot looked away awkwardly as he remembered the incident. "You think he would have hurt me?"

"Hurt? Hah!" Cera gave a cruel laugh. "If he had been in a bad mood the other day, he would have impaled you to a tree! Threehorns hate you flatheads for a reason and I'm pretty darn sure you guys are no different!"

"Well, my folks did warn me about threehorns…" the longneck admitted. Her statement made him somewhat thoughtful; would the threehorn have attacked him back then? Would his mother do the same? He did not know.

"Well, even so, I think getting away from the sharptooth is more urgent so it should be okay to tag along, at least for now…" Littlefoot stated, still not convinced but trying to appear reassuring.

"Gee, thanks…" Cera muttered. That was when the battle truly picked up…

* * *

Sharptooth was there, facing her, and he was more furious like any sharptooth she had ever seen before. The level of determination of the predator was frightening her greatly. Even though her defence and her grim expression would have discouraged any sharptooth of his kind to perform a direct charge, this sharptooth was either too angry or he didn't care. The longneck prepared as the behemoth charged at her on full speed, her tail raised, uttering a deep growl but it discouraged him little. The predator leapt as soon as it was in-range of her tail, a move which may have worked on a less experienced fighter and certainly led to a deadly blow on almost any other leaf-eating kind but Littlefoot's mother knew exactly what she was doing and the terrain was in the longneck's favor. She was prepared, tail and muscles tightened like the bow of an archer, prepared to release the maelstrom of her brutal strength and determination to keep Littlefoot alive. She raised her tail just a little higher before she finally released all the tension. Utilizing all her strength, her tail flung towards the predator advancing mid-air, the thick, muscular part connecting violently and sending Sharptooth flying through the air in a high arc. With a sickening, spine-crushing sound, he crashed into a large boulder which crumbled under the stunning impact. The longneck didn't hesitate; her plan had worked. She sprinted, sprinted as fast as her tired legs allowed her to, away from Sharptooth, towards Littlefoot.

"RUN!" she shouted, panting from exertion. It was apparent that the boy was hiding behind a large boulder uphill, just at the top, yet he wasn't to be seen which almost filled her with pride.

 _"_ _Well done, little Littlefoot!"_

* * *

"There, the signal!" Littlefoot scrambled up the rock to get a quick overview of the situation. Judging from the sounds of the raging battle, his mother had been victorious but the boy needed to be sure. He poked his long neck up as Cera's face appeared beside him.  
 _  
"Oh no!"_

* * *

She had been correct after all. Littlefoot's head suddenly poked out from behind the boulder… as well as the horned frill of the orange threehorn. But that discovery didn't reach her mind as the expression of horror on the children's faces became apparent. It was then that she realized that she'd made a terrible mistake once again… only this time she wouldn't get away with it that easily...

* * *

 _ **The calm before the storm...**_

 **A rather short addition this time, but there is this cliffhanger... I HAD to use it! Consider it a little teaser because now there's no denying it anymore. Shit's gonna happen whenever the next part goes online :P And, needless to say, the next part will be closer to my usual chapter length, I usually try to avoid such stark contrasts of chapter length but the opportunity was simply too good to let it pass, hehe. :)**

 **Hope you enjoyed it nevertheless!**

* * *

The Rhombus chapter 10 . Jan 11

"This fight is a fine example of where the use of the written word can add more detail and elaboration on a scene than can be provided through live action. The focus on Littlefoot's mother in this scene is a nice touch I believe as it allows us (perhaps for the last time, and most certainly for one of the last times) to sense the situation from her perspective. The fear, concern, and growing horror from her are all quite effectively portrayed here.

I certainly have no complaints for this chapter. :) I think that you are effectively portraying a scene that is rather difficult to get right in a written narrative. Though, as I have mentioned before, I both dread and look forward to seeing how you portray what is about to come."

 **Thank you very much :)**

 **It really is hard to find a good balance between the fighting and the Littlefoot/Cera interaction. This current (short) addition is focussing a little more on the latter.**

 **To be honest, I don't think you would have liked to read a 20k chapter out of nowhere :DD The scene is strongly extended from the movie, the Littlefoot/Cera interaction takes a lot of screentime and the fighting and later the struggle with the earthquake will be fleshed out in detail. Since it is all an overarching plot, I decided to split up that theoretical huge chapter into several parts.**

* * *

Guest chapter 10 . Jan 12

"This was unexpected, but I enjoyed it. This greatly elaborates on the character of Littlefoot's mother who before only had limited screen time while alive and hasn't received much development after death from those that knew her. I find it interesting that she acknowledges Sharptooth isn't normal. This couldn't be more true given he survives injuries that would kill or incapacitate any other predator in the franchise. It adds a level of mystery to the antagonist that we haven't seen in the franchise since the original film. I also enjoy how you expanded on the fight and your reasoning for doing so makes sense given film's production history. As you're probably aware 9 minutes of footage was cut during post production by Universal executives who thought it was too intense. This loss of footage is probably the reason why the scene felt rushed as you noted in the conclusion. Personally I think your decision to extend the scene and focus on the thoughts of Littlefoot's mother rather than merely writing an action scene is the best way you could have done this. It frames the iconic moment in a new light that only a novelization could provide."

 **Thank you very much! :)**

 **Your analysis is spot on, a mere action scene wouldn't have done it. Aside from a lot of action being withheld from us, we also didn't get to see the character's emotions and ambitions in the heat of the battle. Delving into the minds of characters is something I keep getting better at I think. I'm really looking forward to take on the other movies one day. Better get my stuff together and keep writing :D**


	12. Chapter 7 - Part 4

**Be prepared, things are getting a bit graphic from here on**

* * *

Part 4:

Littlefoot couldn't believe his own eyes. The sharptooth was running so unnaturally fast after the most important, most dearest dinosaur in his life, his mother seemingly completely oblivious to the approaching danger, probably thinking she had defeated the meateater for good. Littlefoot screamed from the top of his lungs.

 **"** **MOTHER WATCH OUT!"**

But his warning arrived too late. With strength that appeared to defy the laws of physics, Sharptooth leapt, higher, further, higher and even further, seeming as though earth was refusing to pull him back down as it usually did with all things. A wave of terror overcame the little child, the terrifying claws of the monster digging into his mother's back as he smoothly landed on top, clinging onto her flesh with all his strength as the tall longneck desperately attempted to shake him off. Sharptooth held on. He lunged down and…

Littlefoot screamed. He screamed louder than was physically possible, so loud it made his head explode in pain, joined by Cera who screamed as well in utter terror. Pain, fright, panic… it all was overwhelming him the moment the evil monster bit down on his mother's back, sunk his teeth deep, deeper into her body with a sickening sound… Littlefoot wanted to look away, to run away and hide… and yet he ended up staying where he was… where he would see it all happen in front of his very eyes… With a single, powerful movement of the head and neck and a ripping sound Littlefoot would never ever forget, Sharptooth dislodged an enormous piece of meat, much bigger in size than his whole body, from her back, raw and bloody, and greedily devoured it in a single gulp. As he felt his legs tremble, heard his mother howl and groan in unimaginable agony as she tried to push the sharptooth off, as he heard Cera being terribly sick next to him and as he saw the huge amount of blood spilling out from the horrendous wound, red rivers gushing down her flanks, something snapped within the boy.

 _"_ _Mother…"_ Fear like he'd never felt it before grasped his heart tighter than the snake from his grandpa's story. Seeing his mother in agony traumatized the little boy but he couldn't lose himself in the moment, couldn't lose to the despair, mustn't. His mother was still struggling, still fighting. Somehow, she had managed to push Sharptooth off her back, retreating, though the predator didn't let go. They came closer to their boulder and passed it; Littlefoot was certain that their cover had been blown.

"Come!" he hissed to the miserable threehorn who was still retching and sprinted out of his hideout. A horrified expression on her face, Cera gave pursuit.

* * *

Heavy, rattling breaths, a racing heartbeat, a surge of adrenaline. Pain, extreme pain. The adult longneck was operating in a mad, adrenaline-induced frenzy. Blood was gushing out of several severed arteries and veins, staining huge parts of her dark-blue skin crimson-red and splattering a red trail on the ground which would be easy to retrace even if she did manage to escape. She had managed to stun the attacker for a moment when she had shaken him off, however the sharptooth was terrifyingly keen on finishing the job he had started..

The longneck ran, knowing that the extreme blood loss would soon begin to show its severe effects on her strength and stamina - the terrifying wound was already affecting her agility greatly. (While possibly not fatal, the bite wouldn't begin clotting over before long after she'd lost her conscience; and who knew if she'd ever awaken from that…) Either running or fighting was less effective now and the predator was relatively unscathed from their latest clash (as far as she could tell, that was.)

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Littlefoot and the threehorn kid emerge from their hideout. Why Littlefoot was sticking around one of their kind once again was beyond her grasp but little did it matter at that moment. It was truly too unfortunate that the kids had to witness such cruel gore unfold in front of their young eyes, spoiling their innocence, possibly forever. Too terrible also that they had been seen. The sharptooth may have been fixated on her but he must have seen or heart Littlefoot. That put the child in gruesome danger!

"Littlefoot, run ahead!" she yelled through gritted teeth and heavy panting. "As soon as you can, we must split up, I'll distract him so you can...escape!"

Littlefoot's already horrified expression rose to an even higher level as he heard his mother's words. Obviously, he'd have to run from now on too but why away from her? Away from his beloved mother? What good would that do?

"Why do we need to separate?!" he blurted out while running alongside the bleeding adult, barely avoiding the blood splatter from hitting him.

"Just do as I say!" his mother cried in response, the panic evident in every word, intimidating Littlefoot so much that he didn't dare disobey. Besides, as he cast his gaze ahead, all he could see was the steep ravine covered in rubble to his right and the steep mountains to his left. There was currently no way he could go that would separate him from his mother so he kept racing alongside her, Cera in tow, the sharptooth slowly catching up (apparently, the impact with the mountain did end up injuring him slightly after all)

More and more, Littlefoot's mother began to feel the symptoms of blood loss, liter upon liter of the crimson liquid escaping from the gaping hole in her weakening body. She was able to keep the much slower pursuer at bay (maybe he had over exerted himself?), half-hearted swings of her tail keeping the distance between them just about even but it seemed like their escape was coming to a rapid end.

 _"_ _No! The path is blocked!"_

In front of them lay a large boulder directly in their path, impossible to go around. It reached halfway up to her neck in height and seemed roughly as thick as her son reached in length.

 _"_ _I must break through, no matter what, I must!"_ If she was unable to achieve that, they would be trapped in a dead end with nowhere to run, their backs against the unforgiving wall and their fronts open to attack. No, that would seal their fate! Gritting her teeth, the longneck charged with everything she still had, hoping that the combination of her sheer mass and the built-up velocity would result in a momentum great enough to destroy the boulder. The longneck braced herself for the painful impact and…

 ***crack***

...with a loud racket, the hard stone dislodged and crumbled away into several smaller pieces; the path was clear! Unfortunately, it had slowed her greatly and the predator caught up. The wounded longneck was forced to engage in combat again. Littlefoot screamed in horror and worry, darting across the rubble the collapse had just created while his mother prevented the sharptooth from following him, edging backwards while dodging bites and claws. She needed more room for an attack of her own and she needed to catch the vicious beast on the attack. They were still near a deep valley, similar to the one she'd previously pushed the monster into - although this time she would not be careless enough to leave him unsupervised!

Soon, she too had left the rubble on the floor which greatly steadied her footing. Balancing her weight slowly became a challenge as a funny feeling spread through her body, every part, muscle or not, screaming for more oxygen to power her on.

 _"_ _I'm losing too much blood, it's getting rough…"_ It was now or never. A few minutes from now, keeping her footing might be all she'd be able to manage, the bleeding showing no sign of decelerating. Like a waterfall, it fell from her body, making the exact same sound too as it impacted the ground. If she didn't succeed now, she wouldn't have the strength to do anything anymore. Abruptly, Littlefoot's mother stopped her retreat; her mind was ready.

The predator hurried to land another blow to the weakening prey but he hadn't anticipated the counterattack, hadn't expected that the longneck had baited him into her most terrifying weapon's range. As the intense smell of blood numbed his rational thinking, fury and frenzy leading his hunt, he made the terribly mistake of stepping right into the range of the longneck's tail. With a swift movement, the female made a rapid turn, her tail now directly facing the behemoth. A swift, skilled flick of it and hunter suddenly became prey of the longneck's incredible rage, feeling himself catapulted backwards; though this time he didn't hit a mountain or really anything at all. He just fell. As the longneck had hoped, she had carried the meateater beyond the edge of the path they were walking, the sharptooth's feet kicking into thin air before he landed roughly on his stomach, sliding all the way down to the bottom of the slope.

The moment of relief and joy only lasted for a split second, however. She had over exercised her muscles and her vision faded for a moment. Abruptly, her legs gave way, the now muddy ground, a dried up puddle perhaps, failing to support her anymore, her balance failing. The massive body fell with a thundering crash, accompanied by a child's panicked scream.

"Mother!" Littlefoot cried in concern as his dear mother fell to the ground, groaning in pain. Fear flooded the young boy's veins; why did she not get up again?

"Littlefoot… run away…" The boy looked at his mother in pure shock.

"I won't leave you!" As the angry, faraway roars of the angry sharptooth reverberated through the landscape, Littlefoot snuggled up to his blood-smeared mother but she remained hard as stone.

"Save yourself, don't be stupid!"

"No!"

"This is an order!" the female panted, her spirits sinking as wet tears glimmered in the boy's eyes. "Find your grandparents, I will make sure that the sharptooth doesn't go after you!" Littlefoot was still showing signs of indecisiveness so she added with a pledging look. "If you find them quick, they might be able to save me. Now go… please my dear Littlefoot…" A little ungentle, she pushed her son away. She simply hoped that it wasn't the last time she'd see him although her situation was more than grim.

Littlefoot uttered a single, indignant sob before he obeyed with all reluctance he could muster and ran towards the right where, supposedly, his grandparents must be residing. Cera was following him.

* * *

 _"_ _Thank the heavens, he listened…"_ The longneck seemed as if she'd aged 20 years. Her muscles ached, her bones hurt. And, ever so vividly, blood was seeping out of her. If she decided to close her eyes now and committed to her exhaustion and weakness, maybe it'd be a sleep she'd never rise from again. Although it was a slumber which she could only postpone so long before her body failed her.

The longneck rested for a few moments, slowly recovering her breath, the pain of the gaping injury on her back becoming all the more present in her relative state of relaxation, adrenaline levels sinking a little, few groans escaping her mouth. A series of angry roars alarmed her of the still lingering threat, the sharptooth had apparently regained his senses and, judging by the sounds of it, was attempting to climb back up, although the rubble on the cliff was easy to dislodge which should make the ascent a big challenge. Ironically, what the longneck needed the most right now was some more time to rest her muscles, even if her general condition continued to worsen by the minute so she was grateful for the break. Hopefully, it'd be enough to get back to her feet by the time the predator managed to climb all the way. Certainly, it was enough time to survey the situation.

 _"_ _Keeps slipping… but slowly getting up… almost here…"_ So much blood had drained from her body that no coherent sentence was forming in her mind anymore; slowly but surely a little lake of blood was forming underneath her. Only the thought of protecting Littlefoot gave her strength in this dire situation.

* * *

 _"_ _Mother, please be safe!"_

Littlefoot was jogging along the path which more and more turned into open terrain with many rock formations littering the area. The young child's heart was beating much faster than his level of exertion required of it; it was beating not from exhaustion but from the abyss of his worry and fear. His young mind was too fragile and innocent to fully comprehend the situation that his mother was in, but even a little stupid child like him was quite able to tell that his mother was in enormous trouble and danger. The fact that they were separated didn't sit well with him at all.

"I have a funny feeling…" Cera suddenly spoke up, her first words since the disaster unfolded, and she wasn't talking about the urge to vomit the very soul out of her which had haunted her ever since seeing… that. Both children came to an uncertain standstill.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Littlefoot wondered in a tired voice but he needn't wait for an answer...

* * *

The epic battle was nearing the next and, quite possibly, final round. The longneck had seen it all happen and yet she had been unable to do something about it.

"Sharpteeth aren't...aren't supposed to be… so clever… so strong…" she lamented in painful, ragged breaths. Simply standing, just keeping her footing, her balance, it was all she could handle just as she had anticipated, fearing that her legs could give in the moment she tried to move them. The beaten predator had climbed up some distance away so she had been unable to keep him from climbing all the way. Her scheme had failed; she was unable to move or fight.

It was all over now.

The longneck's vision was greatly reduced and she hardly felt the tormenting pain anymore. Her mind didn't comprehend the situation correctly anymore. Maybe she could have tried to fight, maybe she could have attempted to run… and yet she simply remained rooted on the spot as the sharptooth, covered from top to bottom in scratches and bruises, slowly crept closer, still vigilant, still full of strength, still determined to kill…

"No, please no…" Powerless, she had to watch as the beast charged at her, the longneck trying to turn away and run but her legs didn't work. She stumbled, she struggled and then… pain, a sharp sting in the back of her neck, hot blood seeping down her leathery skin where it had been severed. With a groan, in the knowledge that she wouldn't live, Littlefoot's mother collapsed to the ground, her vision blacking out, only the fresh pain keeping her from fainting. Tearing up, she recollected the most important moments of her life as she anticipated the bite that would put an end to her existence… but, to her utter surprise, it did not come. She could not see but she could still hear to some degree. The behemoth stomped the ground in triumph, knowing that the wound he had inflicted in addition to the gruesome bite were fatal to the longneck - her lack of resistance was proof of that. He hadn't cut the vital neck artery but the uniform and steady river of blood streaming out of the fresh cut indicated that he had severed the corresponding vein. If either of those were harmed beyond repair, it meant certain death for a longneck, only that this way the brain would still receive blood and thus the moment of death would be delayed somewhat. Since the longneck was as good as dead, that gave him a splendid chance to settle a score before he would have his hard-earned feast. Roaring, determined to repay a favor, he stomped away swiftly.

 _"_ _He's going after the kids!"_ The fear that came with this realization was enough to stir her fading senses and consciousness returned to her lethargic mind somewhat. Her eyes, still hardly able to see, could make out the predator going in the direction Littlefoot had run off to.

 _"_ _How dare you…"_ The longneck knew that she didn't have long to live but the fact that Sharptooth left her here to die slowly and painfully while attempting to finish the job he had started earlier - to hunt down Littlefoot and that threehorn… It made something inside of her snap. Much rather would she have her neck broken and her body feasted upon than for her son to die with her. Wrath emerged, wrath which was so desperate that it enabled her body once more to rise onto her weak legs. Staggering… but standing.

 _"_ _This time… this time I'll send him to hell!"_ With uncertain steps but a determined mind, she stomped after the behemoth. Though, she didn't get very far before something went terribly wrong...

* * *

 **I don't really have much to say about this chapter. Just let it sink and let me know what you think**

 **Next up is the earthshake and then... T_T**

* * *

Guest chapter 11 . Feb 17

I appreciate that you're taking your time to properly build up to what happens next. In a way it's strange to see Cera be this speciesist again, granted she never seems to fully get over that from what I've seen, but it serves to emphasize her personal growth over the course of the series. As I said earlier,even though she's still a relatively minor character, seeing more of Littlefoot's mother is a welcome addition. This chapter seemed more action oriented than the last, good use of escalation, but you also managed to maintain her inner monologue. I'm honestly not sure whether I can say I'm looking forward to the next chapter considering what comes next, but I know you will do it justice.

 **Thank you very much :)**

 **I will admit, I'm dreading to write those scenes myself but it has to be done, cruel as it is. I sincerely hope I can do the movie justice myself :)**


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